Shades of Gray?

Hmm, I thought I was finished writing for today, but it turns out to be untrue.

I have a matter I need opinions on....

After taking my nephew for a walk today, we stopped by the local pharmacy to get some insertable notebook dividers, because, presumably, the more organized I am, the smarter I will be and the harder I will work.

Well, it sounds good anyway!

I asked my sister and her husband to pick me up some on the way home, because I wanted more. There is a limit of one per customer and the store manager was not pleased when I said my nephew was a valid customer so that I could buy two.

So, the conundrum is, I never checked to see where the dividers were made. It took me so long to find them and to deter my nephew from wanting the mascara, batteries, ribbons, whatever he saw, that I forgot to check.

Ok, that's not fair to blame a one year old. Fairly often I forget to check where something is made, even after eight months of doing this.

Go figure, they are made in China!

I didn't even have to look very hard to find that out, it was right there in medium sized letters on the front of the package, which I discovered after searching the teeny tiny print on the back of the package, where it usually says the country of origin!

By rules, they should go back to the store.

The catch, because there must be one to keep this interesting, is that the dividers were essentially free. The sale price was a dollar but there was a dollar off coupon in the paper, which, being as cheap as I am, is why I went there in the first damn place. In microscopic print, the coupon said I am responsible for the sales tax. However, due to a computer glitch, my stunning good looks or an oversight on the salesperson's part, both inserts rang up free. Sans sales tax. Free. Maybe it was my nephew's good looks that did it.

So, since I did not pay anything for what I got, is that essentially the same as a gift? A free gift from Brooks?

Hey, welcome to a glimpse of life inside my head, a beautiful, poignant world where even the most ridiculous detail can be analyzed from every painstaking angle!

Thanks for reading. Please leave feedback.

Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!

Well, the accusations in my title might seem redundant, but they do actually refer to three separate, yet lumped together in my blog, incidents of traitorism.

The first incident occurs as a result of my blog on Sunday, July 8th.
Now, I freely admit that it was really crappy of me to wait so long to buy my lover's birthday card. I'm guilty as charged. In fact, I've done a really poor job of getting and giving gifts to anyone all year long. It's like I gave up or just got really friggin' tired of trying to find stuff not made in China, and of the entire gift giving process altogether.

However, I will, with a great degree of arrogance (especially considering the last part of this entry), publicly chastise my lover for posting the following comment on Sunday's blog "It is good to know that you spent so much time on my birthday card! I spent hours in the store, unable to pick which one to purchase. Finally I saw the perfect card, but guess what? It was made in China. So I grabbed the first card I could find that was made elsewhere and purchased it for you."

See, dear reader, this is a lie. This anniversary card not only depicted the two of us as dogs, (yes, the card showed two dogs celebrating their anniversary), it is also made in China. Now, according to the rules of the boycott, Luke must take this card back, even though he claims he did not know where it was made. Too bad, so sad, I said.

I'm really being a brat here. I think it has more to do with getting a card where I am presumably a dog (and a friggin' poodle to boot!!); then it does with being made in China. I thought I had left behind all the nightmares of being called a dog by my loving sisters. It was not the way I wanted to celebrate my anniversary...not that Luke would have known any of this.

Still, there is a part of me which thrills at calling him a traitor. It's really very sad.

The second, and still sad, traitorous incident occurred at Staples.

I had a return to make and thought that I'd by myself a back to school treat of my favorite pencils, because, while much of the world has moved towards taking notes on a laptop or even with the old school pen and paper, I prefer my Ticonderogas.

Yes, they must be Ticonderogas. I can be a label snob. This snobbishness used to be ameliorated by the fact that Ticonderogas are, correction, were, made in America. That justified the price increase in my eyes, especially now.

Much to my horrified eyes, however, I learned that my beloved pencils are now made in America, Mexico and, yup, China!

What the hell? How do I buy them now?

Technically the made in Mexico ones are fine, but how does the company know that I bought the made in America or made in Mexico box versus the made in China ones?
An how the hell can you call them "America's finest pencil" if they aren't even made here?

I worked myself up into such a state of annoyance, rage and disgust that I left the store without returning my return. As petty as it may seem, I am really pissed off that not even my favorite "American pencils" are made in America anymore!

Which brings me to the third traitorous event.

A second trip to Staples, to return the unreturned return, led me back to the pencil aisle. At this particular store, ALL of the Ticonderoga's were made outside of the USA. ALL OF THEM! What the hell happened to the few boxes at the other staples which still depicted the American flag?

I was pissed.

I went for a walk.

I walked into the chair section and sat on every chair under $300. I was looking for a non-made in China chair for my desk at home so I could stop paying my chiropractor for the increasingly awful pain in my lower back. Since I fell last October, it is very difficult and painful for me to sit for long periods of time, which is a problem in our sedentary society.

To make an already lenghty blog shorter, I narrowed it down to two choices, the made in Canada drafting chair, which I did not like, and the red, fake leather executive Sealy brand chair, which also happened to be on clearance for $70. It was comfortable, it is a light red, it's made by a mattress company, the woman next to me encouraged me to buy it and the tag said I saved $100.

What more did I need?

I didn't have to flip the chair over to know where it was made. I had done enough comparison shopping by now. My gut told me it came from China.

I could have looked some more. I could have gone to a flea market/yard sale. I could have bought the made in Canada chair I did not like. I could have continued to see my chiropractor. I could have done a lot of things.

I bought the chair and the extended warranty. I love my chair. I'm comfortable when I sit in it. My back hurts less.

I am a traitor.

Guess I can't chastise Luke as much anymore, now that I have a more comfortable ass and back.

So Much to Blog About

Good grief, it's been over a month since I last wrote anything (well, anything not related to school anyway!) and now I sound like a Charlie Brown character! Who says good grief anyway?

My lack of writing is not because I lack things to blog about, not by far!

I haven't written because even though I dream about my blog, compose entries in my head throughout the day and even respond (in my head) to imaginary postings from faithful readers, I am scared.

I find myself in long periods of fear induced paralysis, which usually hits me after I've received two or more new postings, especially when they are from people I've never met.

Writing in your head is so much less terrifying than actually putting something out in this great Internet vortex and waiting, gnawing on nails, or on your partner if they happen to be around, to see what people's reactions are...if there are any reactions at all!

I'm fighting off another bout of paralysis now, because there are things I want to say and once you say them you can't take them back. That's disconcerting!

I am trying to use the knowledge that my nephew is upstairs asleep, for about another half hour, to motivate me to blog about traitors, birthday shopping, hypocritical patriotism, a new kind of callousness, adult stores and other fun topics.

Let's see how far I get. Let's see if I have any readers left!

(As an aside, I never want kids but I'm considering borrowing a nephew or two whenever I need the motivation to write...trying to accomplish anything while they are napping is a rewarding and exhausting feat!)