Impulse Buying

I have a list scrawled on the back of a business card.  JoAnn’s to buy bags to put books in when I sell them tomorrow.  Not just any old books.  THE book.  My novel just published under the cover title “Catching My Breath.”  Authors & Artists Afternoon, my first publicity event, at the Barn in Sudden Valley.  If it’s raining I want to put the book in a bag.  I buy bags plus two and a half yards of glorious glittery fabric for a belly dancing veil.  OK.  That was on impulse.

Then I go to Goodwill and buy pants to wear tomorrow.  They’re brand new and will look good with my new shoes which I pick up at the next stop at the Shoe Repair Shop in the mall.  New shoes never just come home and go dancing.  First we stop and drop off the right shoe because my right leg is an inch shorter than the left.  I get the right one built up.  No impulse buying.  (I’m not a mall shopper and scurry in and out.)

Then to the Country Store, you know the one down there on Meridian and Birchwood?  For cat food.  Hamilton is quite picky about what he eats.  Well, let’s just say he won’t eat most canned cat food and I’ve found one he can tolerate.  Between my car and the cat food aisle is temptation.  Shelves and shelves of plants!  Wonderful bushes, fabulous trees and amazing prices.

I forget I have a cat.  I sniff and touch and peruse the herbs and annuals, wander among rhodies and dogwood, admire Japanese maples and …wait a minute, did I say dogwood?  Really?  I backtrack.  No label.  A young man comes to help as soon as I look confounded.  He calls in the horticultural expert.  She confirms it is a dogwood and that it is indeed sixteen bucks.  For a very healthy large specimen.  Of course I buy it.  Plus three viburnum.  At such a great price I can’t even tell you.  You wouldn’t believe me. 

All of this qualifies for IMPULSE buying.  But it’s for the garden.  That’s how I garden.  I’ve spent winters planning gardens.  Now, I create in the moment and the result is playful and wonder-filled.  And definitely impulsive.

The “real” impulse comes at the check out counter.  I see a display of ladybugs.  Little red net packages.  Really?  I haven’t bought ladybugs in years.  I pick it up, peering to see if they’re actually alive and moving.  Yes.  They look sleepy but eager to come home with me.  I buy a thousand ladybugs.

They tickle my fingers as I release them to the aphids and other fine tasty morsels in my garden.  Too bad they don’t like slugs.  I text Michael…just by speaking.  I’ve just learned to use this aspect of my smart phone, which will probably always be smarter than I am.  I press a  little microphone symbol and speak words that are perfectly spelled.  Even “sluggo”.

That’s my impulse of the week.  What do you impulse buy?

Oh, yes.  I did remember to buy cat food.