Catalogs

A sunny but chilly afternoon, when a pot of decaf really hits the spot. Even with the heat on, I've felt slightly chilled today. Hopefully that's all in my mind.

We're watching another marital train wreck on Dr. Phil. You know, all anyone needs to do in order to feel better about their own life is to watch some of these daytime TV shows – Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, Judge Judy – all those shows should make our families seem pretty tame! One particular looney-bird was being confronted by her family last week on Dr. Phil, and every time they brought up something negative about her she would respond that she would be happy to go with them to talk to a real therapist about it. It was pretty comical watching Dr. Phil's reaction whenever she said that, considering he's a professional therapist.

I love this time of the year, when the mail starts bringing all the Christmas gift catalogs. Even though I'm not really ordering anything this year, it's always fun to look through them. It's easy to understand where the term “wish book” came from.

When I was a kid, we didn't get as many catalogs. But in the spring, late summer, and at Christmas, we would count on getting the National Bellis Hess catalog. It was such fun. They had absolutely everything in those catalogs.

There were many years that my new Easter outfit came from that catalog. And it would be an “outfit”, as opposed to just a dress – a dress with a jacket or light coat in case of cool weather, sometimes a fabric corsage on the coat, and some sort of girlie headgear, all matching. The second excitement would be when the package arrived and I could unpack everything.

I could take days looking through those catalogs, a section at a time. I always spent hours going through the girlie clothes. That was a time that I could escape to someplace in my mind where we had unlimited funds and I could order all those fun outfits. I would go through the ladies' clothing and imagine what I would buy if I were a grownup. Another trip in the catalog would be in the household section, and I would furnish my imaginary house.

This long perusal would occur again in the late summer when the catalog with fall clothes would arrive. Hours and hours going through the clothing, picking out everything I would order if we had limitless money. In my mind, I would have been the best dressed kid going back to school! Of course, along with all those snazzy clothes, I somehow morphed into being tall, skinny and pretty........catalogs could be life-changers when combined with a fertile imagination!

You can only imagine the time I could spend with the Christmas catalog – all the amazing toys in addition to the shiny Christmas clothes and gifts for the grown-ups. That Christmas catalog could take me to that fun fantasy life for hours on end!

Maybe that's why I have so many Christmas shirts now – I finally got to a point in my life where I could indulge myself with a few fun things I don't really need.

I still enjoy looking through the Christmas catalogs, but I guess my attention span isn't what it used to be! Instead of spending hours going through the catalogs, I'm able to flip through them once and put them in the trash. Sometimes being a grownup isn't what it's cracked up to be!