Day 14: My name is Lindsey and I'm a shopaholic.

What is wrong with me? Look to the right...do I really need this? The answer is no. Did I really want this? I absolutely thought I could not live without it. Now that I'm home, I realize I don't have a lot of use for a straw basket-like bag with wooden handles, but it was on sale, it was watermelon (remember that addiction?), and it just had to go home with me.

While I enjoy a cocktail or rely on coffee to start my day, shopping is my drug of choice. I'm pretty sure I get high off it. There's something about walking into a store and feeling the vast opportunity of things that could become mine. The mind wanders, daydreams of serving high tea in delicate, flowered tea cups, or what you could use a hot pink frying pan for, or what shoes you have that would match the dress you've just now decided you can't leave the store without...even if you know you'll only wear it once.

Then comes the buying. The rush of splurging a little more than you know you should, the thrill of a swipe of plastic for something that's not a necessity, the signature with a flourish as you already start thinking about how to accessorize. It doesn't even have to be a major purchase. On my meager budget, I'm not ashamed to say I often fill my basket at the dollar store or check out the clearance shelf at the drug store. As soon as I hit the register, my fingers tingle, my cheeks flush, and I can't help but grin at the sales clerk. I'm suddenly extra friendly, there's a spring in my step, and my outlook on life in general is a whole lot brighter. And, don't even get me started should something be on sale...there are no words to describe a good deal.

So that's how I walked out of the store today. Smiling, almost-skipping and swinging my watermelon bag. Is this normal? Can I get help for this? I believe in indulging every now and then, it keeps you sane. But the rush I get from shopping is almost dangerous. I feel like I teeter on the line between staying in the black and plunging into the red to feel the shopping bags accumulate. (Isn't it a thrilling feeling to gather up a plethora of bags?!) I know I needed the perk today, and it WAS on sale, so I'm feeling like I have enough will power to stop...though, if I was a little more plush in the funds department, I'm not sure it'd be so easy to reign it in. Maybe it's a good thing I'm always broke.