Must not shop...must not shop!

I am in a very materialistic mood. I’m tempted to shop, but instead have decided to focus on some things I love and already own:

My i-pod Shuffle. A gift from Mom and Dad, it supposedly holds 90 songs. I’ve crammed on about 130 songs. It’s the soundtrack of my life, and it makes life’s mundane tasks more fun. It also makes it easier for me to ignore weirdos who try to talk to me on the subway.

Uni-ball Signo gel pens (medium point in 8 colors). These pens are my new favorites, a recent switch from the Pentel RSVP (to which I’d been loyal since high school). The Signo pens are pretty, comfortable to hold, long-lasting and write more smoothly than any gel pen I’ve ever tried. Love, love, love!

Pentel RSVP, I have not completely forsaken you. I recently found the RSVP Mini, which comes with a hole in the cap and a key ring! You can use the hole to tie or hook it to things so the pen doesn’t get lost. I have one in my purse, I’ve tied to my journal, one is hooked into my backpack, and I wear the last one on the lanyard I wear while teaching (yes, I know it’s geeky, but I have to have my keys and a whistle to call deans in case of emergency). The RSVP mini is love of my teaching life! Unlike pens I’ve had in the past, I never misplace it.

Dove Toffee Tango Cookies. The chocolate and toffee layers are luxurious! The shortbread-ish cookie layer keeps it from being too rich. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Warning: It is impossible to just eat the suggested serving size.

Yoga Booty Ballet workout system. The name? Ridiculous and embarrassing. The results? Worth it. For about $40 I got DVDs with 4 workouts and a guided meditation, a little “squeezy ball” and a diet guide. I had to buy my own 3 lbs. handweights for one routine, but they were cheap at a local sporting goods store. Each workout is a weird combination of yoga, funky moves and ballet moves. The diet guide is insane and should be ignored (two days of fasting? I think not!) but the tapes are fun. One is cabaret, one is hip-hop and the other two are generic YBB workouts. The variety keeps me from being bored, and the different workouts are different lengths, so I can pick according to my schedule. I feel energized (and it helps burn the calories from all those Dove Toffee Tango cookies).

Acupressure massages. It is delicious torture. The masseuse’s fingers and knuckles dig in to knotted muscles and attack them until they beg for mercy and you are relieved and relaxed. (Okay, technically this isn't "something I own." It's more of a service I have purchased in the past.)

Stila eye shadow and lip gloss. I use a lot of Estee Lauder makeup, but these Stila products have proved fabulous additions. The eye shadow color is called Crystal, I think, and highlights my brow-bone (as recommended my Carmindy from What Not To Wear). The lip gloss is nearly clear. I have a terrible time finding lipstick because my natural color makes it look weird…I can’t explain it. The Stila salesperson said that was my mistake: “You’ve naturally got a beautiful, strong lip color. Don’t hide it; use something sheer with just a little peach tint so you’re not so pink-pink-pink.” And my makeup life has been so much easier ever since.

Next post, I hope to focus on less-material things I love.