Feeding the addiction

I was thoroughly amused that as part of the class structure, we will be looking to magazines for inspiration. Not because I don't see them as a good source. Quite the opposite, actually. As a magazine junkie, I felt validated by the instructions to collect magazines. Finally, an actual reason to buy more magazines!

Collecting magazines is nothing new to me. I've been reading them since I was a kid- first Highlights and Zillions ('Consumer Reports for kids'), then on to adolescence and Seventeen, YM and 'Teen. I hoarded those teen magazines for years. When my family moved, my mom made me throw away my prized collection. I'm still mourning the loss. And she still thinks I'm nuts.

Now, as an adult, I subscribe to an embarrassing amount of magazines (nevermind the supermarket impulse buys- me? Read USWeekly? Pssssht.) The mailman probably wonders why someone who lives in Harrisburg is reading Portland Monthly (yes, Portland, as in Oregon.) Incidently, I started subscribing to that magazine, not for its content, but for the design. I found it fresh and contemporary and inspiring.

My live-in boyfriend, who has large amounts of disdain for the ever-growing pile of magazines lurking in the corner, was less than thrilled with my declaration that he could not throw any (no, not one) of those precious glossies out. I need those magazines for class, I told him triumphantly. I will be using them extensively for research. Hands off!

So, for this semester, I am free to gleefully buy as many magazines as I wish. And I am validated in my addiction. Until May, anyway. Then, the boyfriend will seize the magazines and have a Memorial Day bonfire. A really, really big bonfire.