acquisitiveness
Truly, there’s nothing like knowing that she somehow, by a date not too far off in the future, must pack, sell, give away, and/or otherwise dispose of the entire contents of her 430 sf, one-closet casitaita (plus one washing machine which lives outside, assorted outdoor plants, and a small portly feline)—there is, as I say, nothing like knowing such a diaspora of belongings is coming up fast that makes a girl suddenly want to buy things.
(It alarms me a little; I think, maybe I’m manic? No, because then I would be buying instead of coveting. Merely hypomanic then—collecting pictures of the beautiful objects and writing about them compulsively.)
The verb acquire, by the way, turns out to be related to the Latin quaerere, meaning to search for—and isn’t that the delight of desire? The thrill of the quarry, more so than its capture? Alors—my most recently longed-after baubles, though possession be fleeting and ownership transitory:
1. An adorable cherry-red satin-lined suitcase, with a tag on it that says AMELIA EARHART, because indeed, who knew, but Ms. Earhart had her own designer luggage line! And the suitcase is remarkably unworn and bright and clean inside, AND it doesn’t smell like old people. But the thrift store wants $25 for it, which seems excessive. Still, considering that I am about to move, I suppose it would be the most reasonable purchase out of all these. Or, shall we say, the least disgustingly frivolous.
2. The new Postmark Lenormand by Melissa. I’m kind of obsessed with this, to be honest. Its delicate typeface and winsome vintage art! Its adorable copper tin! Its entire system of cartomancy about which I know absolutely nothing! Clearly, an entirely practical object—though telling myself sternly that I don’t need it reduces me inwardly to a helpless toddler moaning, BUUUT MOOOOOM, I WAAAANT ONE. Also $25 (plus shipping), extremely reasonable given aforementioned adorable copper tin.
3. Which brings me to another practical object—the “Nuevo Versión” Lotería, with its beautiful folk illustrations by painter Teresa Villegas. I have the old-school lotería, crudely printed on and cut from plain cardboard stock, and haven’t memorized any of the accompanying traditional riddles, or the divinatory meanings thereunto. But LOOOOOK this one is PRETTTY! MOOOOOOM! [There's really no way to typographically represent that particular word-sound so it doesn't look as though it rhymes with "zoom," which I admit I find frustrating.] But doesn’t an impoverished PhD student NEED two new tarot decks?! Isn’t it practically a REQUIREMENT? $8.50 from a nice company selling them as foreign language-teaching aids, plus $4 shipping.
4. One should not, if one is me, ever be allowed again to purchase ANY of the following three non-commodities: a) books, b) fabric, and c) electric pianos. I have metric tons of the first two, and two of the last. However this does not stop me from lusting over this bundle of Kaffe Fassett shot cottons (scroll all the way down, should you really care about such things). £18.95, which is approximately two or three hundred of our earth-dollars.
5. Finally, the ongoing typewriter obsession. Really the less said about this the better, since I have been subjecting patient readers to photographs of the 1950s-era Smith Corona Silent Super for about two years now. I discuss it incessantly and just can’t bring myself to buy one, in part because I am petrified that I then wouldn’t use it, and it would become another one of those dust-covered-exercise-machine type purchases that one can so handily use to beat oneself up, like an uncompleted novel draft. Not that I would know anything about that, cough.
But this one is mint. They were also made in pale green and a kind of bilious pink color, but I like best the sky-blue model. Isn’t it beautiful? I don’t so much want to own one as I do visit it in a museum every Friday when admission is free, like an Odilon Redon, or an O’Keeffe watercolor. $225, with free shipping (well I should bloody well say so).
That’s it for now—more than enough in fact. Happy cupidity, everyone!
