addictions

a while back Janet, posted five things she is addicted to & i immediately filed this idea away for future use on my own blog. there are many things i like but things i am actually addicted to...?

1. Yankee Candles - i have a serious collection of these. i love the scents they have! i prefer to use the votives over the jars because it means i can switch scents frequently. and with so many that i love, this is very important! back when i lived in Connecticut, my dad & i used to make a trip up to the flagship store in Deerfield, MA once each season to stock up on seasonally-appropriate scents. now i have to rely on what i can get online & in the store at my local mall. i stock up on all my annual favorites as well as checking out any new seasonal scents that have been released. i don't always use every single votive i have "in stock" each season which is fine with me because i let my favorites roll over from year to year, tucked away until the season comes around again! this comes in especially handy when a favorite scent is retired and i have one last votive to really enjoy.

2. all things Red Sox - unless you're a newcomer to my blog, i think this goes without saying. i gobble up every tidbit of information i can find. i watch as many of the 162 regular season games as i can. you would be hard-pressed to get me away from a tv when the Sox make it to the post-season. and then i count the days again until Spring Training. two of the three computers that i use have something Sox-related as the desktop background, and my favorite screensaver is on my laptop: a collection of Sox photos i have saved up over the years. if you look in my closet, there is an entire section of Sox shirts that i love to wear. i seriously don't believe there is any such thing as being too fanatic about my team!

3. Disney - annual passholder for Disney World & i never get tired of visiting the parks. i love to learn the backstories for the parks and attractions. one of my very favorite pastimes is to bring my camera to one of the parks & wander around with it. i love spending time in the California parks when i visit Nichole and Daniel. and i eagerly read up on all the international parks. the similarities and differences between the parks fascinate me, especially learning *why* the Imagineers made things different.

4. magazines - i have always loved to read. i taught myself how when i was 4 years old & read voraciously as a child. i loved any book about horses, the Nancy Drew mysteries, the Baby Sitters Club series, the Little House books. i still enjoy reading but adult life does not always accommodate sitting down to read a book, especially because i have this "thing" where i need to have enough time to complete a full chapter; stopping mid-chapter really aggravates me. when i have a limited amount of time or just want something to fill my hands without requiring too much attention, magazines fit the bill! i have subscriptions to quite a few of them (they are one of my little indulgences) & very few things make me as happy as opening up my mailbox to find a new issue has arrived! books are wonderfully detailed worlds but magazines are always like a grab bag. you never know what little bit of wonderfulness you will encounter in just a few page flips of a magazine. a new recipe. a fun decorating idea for a holiday. an interesting article. a great gift idea. anything is possible & the time commitment is perfectly customizable.

5. re-runs of my favorite shows that aren't on the air anymore - when you watch a show from its earliest days, the weekly standing date becomes a comfortable ritual & the characters start to feel like friends. i am always a little sad when one of my must-see shows comes to an end so catching it in syndication is like a little reunion! and don't even get me started on how happy i am that you can now purchase seasons on DVD for so many shows! when nothing else is on tv or i just feel like my background noise being something cozy & familiar, i just pop in a DVD. i am slowly gathering my favorites for my DVD collection (Friends and S&TC are already complete sets! and i also have already been buying Grey's Anatomy as each season is released. still on my list: Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Boston Legal) & you would not believe how much use they all get!

and because i simply cannot follow rules that ask me to pick a limited number of favorites...

6. photos - i *love* photos. mine. yours. digital. printed. it doesn't matter. i love to take them. i love to look at them. i love to hear or tell the stories behind them. it doesn't matter how many times i have flipped through my albums or sifted through my photo boxes or scrolled through the digital photos on my computer, i never ever get tired of them. ever.

i may be completely addicted to these things, to the point that if you took them away from me, i might curl up in a corner & cry (seriously people, you should witness the Sox withdrawals each Winter as proof) but at least my addictions are all perfectly legal & not detrimental to my health in any way!