February

Shopping for fun is not a concept I am familiar with any longer. I was quite a mall rat when I was in Jr. High. I worked at a mall bookstore when I was in college, and spent my lunch hours browsing in the other stores. As a graduate student I suppose I felt some sense of longing for things I couldn't afford and shopping was a big luxury I was hoping to someday afford, but by the time I could afford to shop at my leisure, I'd stopped enjoying it. I can't stand crowds, or too much noise, so giving up shopping wouldn't really be the sacrifice to me that it was for Carlomagno, who was used to regular shopping trips. I was especially interested in her comment that "The idea of purchasing something new for a special occasion was magical. What I failed to recognize was that every day was not a special occasion" - an important lesson. In fact it is the same one that Elmo from Sesame Street learn in Elmo Saves Christmas, and one that I am still trying to explain to my daughter, who, whenever she wants something asks if she can have it "for a special occasion" - the occasion being that she wants it now.

Paradoxically, Carlomagno says she learned to shop from her mother, but then goes on to describe that shopping with her mother was a special occasion, and that there was always a special item they were on a "mission" to buy, in sharp contrast to the shopping trips she takes with her friends, the object of which is simply to buy stuff.