Guilty Purchases

I was at a birthday party today for a five year (because, yeah, my life is like that) and one of the dads asked me and Martin what has been our most decadent, life changing, guilty purchase since COVID. And to be honest, I couldn’t answer. Not for lack of purchases, but rather lack of an inventory of everything I have bought over the past 18 months.  And I have bought a lot!  So much, I can’t remember.

So, ready to face the demons (aka purchases) in my closet, this is my attempt at coming to terms with the things I have obtained during the times of COVID. The good, the bad, the useful, the unused, the embarrassing and the things I can no longer live without (which is surprisingly, very limited).

My initial purchases were functional and necessary.  I bought a lot of “day care” supplies for the kids like arts and crafts supplies, paints, a painter’s easel, and a science experiments book.

By mid-summer, my purchases shifted to supporting the Black Community: through books on racism and strong representation for the kids and through my wallet for black owned businesses. Two of my favorite black owned shops now include: Neutral Ground (in Oakland) and Domain (near D.C.).

My wardrobe shifted from business casual to SAHM with too many new pairs of comfy pants, workout pants, fat-girl pants, too many new comfy sweatshirts, and fancy new pajamas. Unfortunately I also had to invest in new jeans after one of my pairs of my pre-pandemic jeans ripped midway through summer.

I also became obsessed with buying vintage clothing that, for the most part, I have yet to wear. They are all amazing pieces like my ridiculous 80s teal jumpsuit and 70s style muumuu, but I don’t quite have an occasion to rock them.

With so much time on zoom, my self-care game also had a few new purchases: the most useless being the lipstick I bought in hopes of wearing outside (clearly forgetting about the mask mandate) and the most ridiculous being a blond wig, because why not.  I also bought my own Pilates reformer system which, after a few months, began to gather a solid layer of dust once I rediscovered my love of tennis (which also prompted another solid shopping spree for new gear).

Not surprisingly, I bought a lot of new holiday décor and supplies including our new electric fondue pot for Christmas dinner, Irish coffee glasses for Christmas Eve and naturally dinosaur taco holders for our Taco Parties.

I had specialty tea shipped in from Boston, gourmet pickles and bloody mary mix delivered from Colorado and the best caramel apples made in Wisconsin (at least I think that is where they came from).

The most useful thing I bought is probably the bike rack system we installed in the basement for the “project” I never quite finished. However I am now starting to use the air fryer a little more, so that might take the lead here shortly.  The most disappointing thing I bought was my Last Object Q-Tip (I was really hoping to save the world by no longer needing disposable Q-Tips… instead I just wasted a lot of energy to have the reusable ones delivered and not actually used).

I have bought so much stuff I have forgotten about half of it!  I bought an amazing 1980’s YSL dress from Arcade that I forgot was in my closet until I looked at my credit card annual statement and remembered purchasing it (note to self, don’t look at that statement ever again) and I bought a set of petite gold earrings to celebrate the 10-K getting on file (and to help ease the pain of me not getting promoted) that have been worn once and now sit in my jewelry box next to my engagement ring.

Even more embarrassingly, this list excludes all of the items purchased for McKane’s wedding festivities, the items needed to furnish Timber Cove, items bought to set up my home office and the multiple items for the kids who are growing so fast.  

I would like to believe in the concept of “retail therapy” but given my current state of mind, I don’t think this therapy is helping much.  So looks like I need to find another outlet.

The first step in addressing a problem is acknowledging the problem right?  So here it goes: “Hi, my name is Lisa, I have bought way too much stuff during COVID.”