One thing the Aranzi Aronzo comic books feature is the two bunny girls (Brown Bunny and White Bunny) contemplating cute stuff.

There is this exchange, in book 1:

White Bunny: "Did you know, girls need cute things or else they'll die?"
Brown Bunny: "White Rabbit, I think you're taking it a little too far..."

White Bunny goes on to describe a sort of Blade Runner urban dystopia where they had to wear old coveralls all the time, and there was "no cute or fun music," only noise.

So Brown Bunny concludes: yes, without cute stuff, maybe girls would die.

So they go out looking for some.

The story continues in the later books...eventually the bunny girls become Cute Stuff Expeditionaries.

Now, I have never been one to be of a military or other kind of uniform-group situation (as I said below, I didn't last too long in Girl Scouts), but if there is a Cute Stuff Expeditionary Force out there, I could join that.

So I decided - after grading far too many papers today, after coming home and doing the hour's workout I felt too tired to do this morning, and seeing as this is the one precious Saturday I will have free for quite some time, I'm going to go and be a Cute Stuff Expeditionary. Or, in a less twee vein, I'm going to go antiquing and hit the fabric stores. It's been a long time since I've been out to do anything - with gas as high as it is and me as busy as I've been, the biggest "expedition" I've managed is to go to the little local quilt shop. Which is fun and wonderful but isn't quite the same as taking a full day and getting out of town.

And yes, the getting-out-of-town part is important.

So I've figured that the gas I've saved by not doing anything much in the way of driving lately, I will go ahead and use tomorrow. (And I noticed on the way home the Love's near me had dropped 2 cents a gallon: perhaps it's a favorable omen?).

So I will be looking for cute buttons, and cute fabric, and cute fancy soaps, and maybe some cute antique things. And, oh yes, a cute gift for my mother for her birthday coming up this month, so it won't be a 100% selfish trip.

(As silly as the Aranzi Aronzo books are, there is something culturally interesting about them - as they're written in Japan by two Japanese ladies [never mind the tale of Mr. Aranzi and Mr. Aronzo that's on the website...], there's a slightly different perspective...it's like the typical girly stuff we'd have in this culture but also slightly different. And I get the feeling - from what I've read about Japan and its pop culture, adults are less abashed about liking cute stuff - I mean cuuuuuuuuttttte stuff like cartoon bunnies and smiling mailboxes, not your standard "cute" stuff like babies and puppies which it's OK to like, even in the US - than we are.

And I like cute stuff. And especially cuuuuuuuttttte stuff. And I get a little tired of apologizing for it, like it's some kind of deviation. [Well, perhaps it is, but I'd argue it's not a harmful one]).