Infinite Ink

On looking, longing and leaving

I wish I could bring the entirety of Ikea home. It's just so gorgeous. Today, I settled for bringing home just a backpack and a hanger. Don't laugh. It's a gorgeous pink Ikea family backpack with enough compartments to satisfy the most finicky of organizers. (Not to say that I am one, but still, you never know when a compartment can come in handy.) The hanger is an array of loops. Hey, you're snickering again, aren't you? It's for organizing your headscarves and such, and anything else you can thread through the loops. Yes, I left the rest of Ikea in Ikea and came back with a backpack and a hanger. Really, it's not funny...OK, I give up. 

Let me tell you something interesting. I selected these two items the last time I went there, but I got them on this visit. That's because Baba believes in this concept called "delayed gratification", meaning, you work or wait for something first, and get it later. This has resulted in my becoming an expert window shopper, both live and online. (Refer to chapter "The Shopper's Psyche" for more details on, ah, my online shopping psyche.) I can actually admire products on the shelf (or on the screen) and walk away (or close the tab) without purchasing them. I even pick them up (or add them to my virtual shopping cart) and put them back. Yes, you ardent shopaholics in the readership may minimize the tab and open a nice soothing wallpaper to look at while you take deep breaths.  

Not to say that I don't make impulse purchases sometimes. I do. However, I like to collect photos of cute and appealing things, like cute stationery, fan merchandise, jewelry and clothes—without intending to order any of them. I just like to look at them to cheer myself up. Yes, going through photos of things I'm not going to purchase but which appeal to my shopping sense actually cheers me up. I go as far as to make albums of them on Facebook, so I can spread the joy. Some girls catch the joy. Others become covetous and, upon discovering that the object of their desire is not so easily available but in fact comes with a hefty shipping charge, indulge in the self-inflicted suffering of the thwarted shopper.  

I am a good window shopper, if I do say so myself. What about you, do you ever window shop? More on shopping, weekend and shopping on the weekend tomorrow.