Downtime is coming....

It looks like the rain will clear out by Saturday morning, so maybe on Saturday (after New Pony, and I think this is a Trixie episode?) I will get to go antiquing. I don't have anything in mind that I need or want but that's kind of the point of antiquing - the serendipity of finding something cool you didn't know existed or you didn't know you could use.

(Though I will say, it seems with the rise of eBay and Etsy there are fewer small-town antique shops, and there seems to be less random stuff in them - back before I started my small collects of G1 ponies, I used to occasionally see them in the toy sections of the shops, but now no more. Am wondering if there's a collector/seller in the area who regularly combs the shops or who "picks" yard sales for them, so they don't turn up any more)

But I can still usually find an occasional interesting piece of cut glass, or one of those souvenir plates, or something interesting. Will try to remember to keep my eyes peeled for wall shelves - I need one that will hold my few G1 Ponies (Posey, Bubbles, Heart Throb, baby Surprise, Up Up and Away, Star Hopper.....and also on order, because my favorite shop had a sale - Twice as Fancy Dancing Butterflies and Baby Glory. But I really should stop with those.... though I kind of want one of the "first tooth" baby ponies now, because they are kind of silly looking. And the G1 baby ponies are SUPER cute - they don't have the creepy iris-less eye effect that the G4 ponies have, they are just much smaller and chubbier versions of the adults, and so they are super cute.  Though I'm not sure I like the so-called Beddy Bye Eyes ones, which have those open-and-close doll's eyes; I think I prefer the painted-on eyes that I think of as being "distinctive" of the MLP franchise)

I also need a larger shelf for my Monster High dolls, though I might go to Lowe's sometime and see what they have, because I think it will take a shelf that is maybe 2 1/2 feet long or so to easily house all of them.

It's just relaxing to go antiquing. It's not like clothes shopping, where you have a goal you probably have to meet ("need new jeans" "I have that fancy do to go to so I need a dress") and it can be extremely frustrating if you can't find what you need. And it's not like grocery shopping. Grocery shopping isn't BAD at good times (when the store is not crowded and they've just restocked) but I've found that lately - probably because of budget cuts meaning cut workforce - many stores don't restock very fast and more than once I've gone to the SOLE store in town (the Mart of Wal) that carries a product just to find an empty shelf. (And of course, no one around to ask "Hey, do you have any more in the back?"). But with antiquing - you don't HAVE to buy anything. If you don't see anything you want, you can just smile to the owner and thank him or her on your way out the door. And usually the stuff there is stuff you don't really NEED, but sometimes it is stuff that makes your life happier - like the vintage cookbooks that I like to flip through and sometimes even try recipes from, or the nice old embroidered dresser scarf, or a cute picture frame that will fit that snapshot you have and want to keep.

And yeah. I admit, I am very much a "clutter" person. I like having stuff around. I like having shelves full of books; it makes my house seem more friendly. I like having my toys around me because they cheer me up when I'm sad.

In a chain of clicking the other day, I wound up on an article (someone linked it on Twitter) where a book-lover was talking about this new "art of decluttering" thing where the person (the method is called the Konmari method) essentially tells you to get rid of 3/4 or so of the stuff you own. And that includes books - at her most extreme, she was telling people to dispose of books they hadn't read yet (which seems silly to me: the books I haven't read yet are the ones I will read sometime) and also to even TEAR OUT PAGES so you only keep "the words you like." WHAT?!?! (the person has since backed off of that but honestly? Tearing up a book is vandalism. If you only want a few pages out of it - say it's a poetry anthology - make a photocopy of those pages to keep and then donate the book somewhere)

But, yeah. I don't know. I think in some ways this is another indicator of how our culture tends to be bad at moderation - you have, on the one hand, all of those Hoarders shows (which make me twitch and yes, I really need to go back to my big closet and get rid of all the clothes that either are nearly worn out or that don't fit me well, and I also need to cull books again) but on the other you have people tell you to live in a sterile box and experience everything "virtually."

I don't know. As I said, I tolerate a certain level of clutter - in fact, I like some forms of it, I have stuff all over my walls - souvenir plates in the bathroom, family photos in the living room, inspirational quotes and stuff on the wall over my bed (and also, I think that's where my G1 pony shelf will eventually go). I don't like PAPER clutter - I pay my bills as soon as I receive them because I hate having stacks of those reminding me I have to do them. And as much as possible, once I complete any grading, I take it back to my office (I DO have a lot of paper clutter there, but I don't live in my office) so I don't have to look at it any more. And mail. I get tired of dealing with mail. (I have said more than once that I'd pay an anti-subscription to the publisher if I could stop getting that weekly 'Shopper' thing that's full of classified ads, and if I could put a stop to all the annoying junk mail from car dealerships and quickie-loan places and local furniture stores. Already I've stopped a lot of the catalogs, from places that actually abide by your request not to send things out....). And I can't leave dishes in the sink without feeling very uncomfortable about it. (Actually, having a messy kitchen and bathroom bother me more than clutter in the rest of the house. Germophobia? Maybe.)

Back to the decline of antique shops - I've read that in some parts of the country, the vintage-furniture market is crashing, because Millennials don't want it, or can't afford it. And that makes me a little sad (though I bet that there are Millennials who do like and care about it, just not most of them). I like vintage furniture and when I needed furniture* I tried to buy older stuff as much as possible, because it tends to be better made and prettier and is real wood. And often I find I can get a nicer piece than I could afford new. The "buffet" I use for storage in my dining room is a mid-century piece that cost me $250 plus a delivery charge and I bet I'd have paid a lot more for a comparable real-wood one that was newly made.

(Though maybe if the economy EVER gets better, and Millennials actually gain some spending power, some of them will discover the fun of antiquing....)

(* Except for upholstered furniture. I learned that the hard way when I got fleas from an old chair. I guess I should be grateful it was not bedbugs.)

Another thought: perhaps I find antiquing fun because the shopping represents "possibilities" and the consideration of same: looking at a vintage cookbook, I see the possibility of making some of the recipes in it. Considering an old printed tablecloth, I can think of the possibility of how it would look cool on my dining room table. Looking at a goofy piece of costume jewelry, I can think of the outfits I might possibly wear it with. And so on. And I don't HAVE to buy that thing, I can just think about how I might possibly use it in my life, and then decide if I want it, if I'm willing to pay what it costs or not and find a place for it in my home....

With regular shopping, so often it's "I NEED these things" (laundry detergent or new jeans or socks or vegetables or notebook paper) and so there's not that element of choice there - it's more "Is this detergent likely to contribute to hives" or "do these jeans make me look intelligent*" and there's not that element of possibility - it's more, get in, find what I need, pay, get out. Not as much browsing but seeing as I mostly wind up shopping in big-box stores (because that's what exists here), they tend not to be fun to browse in.

(*Heh, there was a news story - in the typical way science news gets misinterpreted - claiming that women with larger rumps were smarter and healthier, when it really meant that carrying more fat in your hips and thighs, as opposed to your abdomen, MIGHT have an effect on long-term health and possibly memory....so of course I thought of the gag of a woman asking her male partner, "Do these jeans make me look smart?")