For those that know me very well...this blog entry won't come as a shock. But, for those of you that don't, are you in for a surprise. OK..well, maybe not a huge surprise.
Since I was a kid I have had a fetish that I don't tell most people about. I love school supplies. Every year around this time, the stores start stocking their shelves with spiral notebooks, back packs, and reams of crisp new paper and my mouth starts to water and my eyes twinkle with delight. For me there are very few things that can give the satisfaction to the smell of a brand new pack of crayons or sharpening a pencil to a perfect point.
Yes, this may make me the biggest freak or nerd that has ever walked the earth, but there it is.
As a young girl my mother would buy my school supplies about two weeks before school started and I would spend every day of that two weeks opening my new backpack and unloading the contents, laying it out precisely on the floor and just staring at it. Even back then, I couldn't wait to open the packages and start using my new stuff to create. My mother had to start hiding the stuff so that I wouldn't get into it early.
Before I had children and when I was no longer in school, I followed the sales on school supplies and would buy and donate enough for 5 children. So now that I have my two boys, and they are both going to be in school this year (my oldest in 1st grade and my youngest in Pre K.) I have started buying for them. It brings me joy to discover that my youngest son shares in my love for the school supplies. He has already had me spread out his new supplies so he can stare at it. And he was upset when he thought his beautiful new blue folder was bent on the corner. Yes, I had to follow in my mother's footsteps and hide the bounty so he would not be tempted to tear into it a month before he starts school.
So this year, when you are shopping for your childrens' school supplies, think of me and smile and know that I am smiling as I peruse the isles just to get a whiff of the newness and euphoria that only it can bring.
