Baby Steps Away From Addiction
For a long time, it was shoes. I was the shoe girl, the one people could count on to be wearing new ones, fun ones, uncomfortable ones. You might catch me stretching my leg out to admire my lovely shoes and good taste in buying them. (I bet Tracey can feel me on that.) Large portions of my credit card bill and my first non-fiction essay were dedicated to them. After a point, it becomes a sickness.
Now it is wine.
I love to bring bottles home, pull them out of the box or bag, then sit in front of the small wine cooler next to my refrigerator. The draw? It’s the challenge of deciding what goes in and what must go somewhere else, also known as what’s age-worthy and what’s not. Or trying to rearrange more artfully to get in one extra bottle and still be able to close the door.
So when I say that I didn’t bring any wine home from the in-store tasting I did tonight, nor did I last week… that is not to say I’m fighting the addiction to drinking. The disease is deeper than that. It’s the desire to have more bottles. Wine for categorizing, choices for different cuisines, the ability to offer friends their favorite varietal. It is the collecting, the possessing, the ability to hold it in my hand.
As with the shoes, the key is not to think about the costs as a running total. Better to enjoy on an individual basis. However, unlike shoes (which may be worn a hundred times or only once), the bottle that was beyond my means can only be drunk the one time. After that, I have to rely on my unreliable memory. Of course, that gives me an excuse to replace those bottles.
Unless the obsession changes shape again.
…Farley Walker
November 20th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Farley,
OCD can be a wonderful thing.
If one doesn’t get carried away, that is
I can remember many a night (morning and day) when many a bottle (wine or otherwise) played an important role. I can’t remember too many “specific” nights (mornings or days), but unlike shoes or rare wine, I revel in the running totality of it all.
Come to think of it, recalling specific people is also a bit problematic, too.
Probably good I no longer wear shoes
November 20th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Yes, I had to change a word.
Can you find it?