The best things in life aren’t free, but they are pretty damn inexpensive.
When my mother wanted to buy me a printer/scanner/copier for Christmas one year, I asked if I could instead have a white terrycloth robe. Her reaction? “Um, sure….” She was puzzled and I was delighted. I’d wanted the hulking shroud for years but for whatever reason, had never been able to bring myself to drop the dough to buy it. A whopping fifty bucks. I’d had zero problem buying living room furniture ( a financial sacrifice that had me eating Campbell’s soup two meals a day two months). But when it came to the relatively smaller purchase, it seemed more of a splurge.
Or, maybe the wanting gave me a reason to live. This Fish needs an obsession?
Until recently, my desire unfulfilled was The Immaculate Collection. The first music video I ever saw on MTV (I’d been sheltered from its pervasive evilness until an accidental encounter with hotel cable when I was 11) was Papa Don’t Preach, launching a two-decade love affair with Madonna. But, again loving to love from afar, I never managed to buy my favorite album.
Out of the blue one day, Shawn asked if I had an Amazon wish-list. I did. Sorta. I’d started it out of boredom and never quite got around to doing any wishing. My list had three items on it. Princess Bride on DVD, The Kite Runner and The Immaculate Collection. She sent me all three. I didn’t know people did that. Just made other people’s decades like that. I hopped around my office all afternoon chanting, I gottta prresssent. I haaave Madonna! I was absolutely thrilled.
But when Shawn bought for me what had long remained the leader on the Things I Want Above All Other Things list, number two got promoted. I am now suffering an intense crush on the Senseo Coffee Maker. I burn, I pine, I perish. I get that all too familiar yearning feeling (once reserved for tall boys with glasses). There are strange heart palpitations involved.
Having lovingly stared at its internet visage for the last several minutes, I’m in debates about buying it and ending this silliness. I have a nice little holiday bonus – why shouldn’t I buy myself the gift of beauty and caffeine? Well, maybe because, the wanting gives me a reason to live. Or at least a reason to walk up and down the same aisle at Target every month.
And if that’s not living, I don’t know what is.
Get the coffee maker! Trust me, once you get it, you will find something else you want equally as bad…something else to live for!
Go ahead and buy it. Just stay away from the CoffeeGeek website. If you are obsessive like me, the simple desire for your own espresso machine can turn into a $1200 purchase. There was no reason to spend that kind of money, but I HAD to. The cheaper one couldn’t steam as fast.
No, don’t do it. Not yet anyway. You haven’t tortured yourself with the longing enough. You’ve got to EARN it, sweetie.
Get it, you deserve it!
Fish – I would actually recommend the Tassimo system, which I bought a few weeks ago. It’s really amazing, it makes Suchard hot chocolate, cappuccino, lattes, crema, and COFFEE! Seriously, it’s the best damn coffee I’ve ever had. check it out — http://www.tassimodirect.com.
mike – that’s funny.
Great design for a coffeemaker. I want one and I am not even a coffee drinker.
My avarage time between seeing something I want and getting it is 6 months, or I forget about it and went onto the next must have item.
Great post. Love your writing.
I got a Melitta pod maker (http://www.1to1coffee.com/) from the office fairy this year, and I am in love.. it’s not even close to one of the fancier ones! In fact, I need to go make myself some coffee right now..
I have this thing about bookstores. I go to the stores to look. To look at what, I have no idea. All I know is, when I see it, I’ll know. And when I do see it, my need to go to bookstores will be fulfilled? Fulfilling that may be satisfying, but it’s nearly as fun as finding all the things that aren’t what I’m looking for along the way.
I am the worst…. “It’s only a candle. Just buy it.”, my mother tells me…. But it’s $30! Why should I spend $30 on a candle? Even though I am dying to have the Henri Bendel Firewood aroma fill my house, I can’t do it. “Why don’t you buy it for me for Christmas?” I finally say as I sigh and put it back on the shelf. I’m such a cheap-ass. No problem dropping $200 on a bar tab, but no $30 candle for me….Sigh.
Dude, buy the coffee maker. The coffee is excellent. It’s fast, effortless and the pods are cheap. If it prevents you from stopping by Starbucks even a couple of times a week that thing will pay for itself in no time.
Don’t do it!! I wanted a gameboy since I was about 9 years old but I always figured that wanting one was actually better than the anticlimax of owning one. Last Christmas my ex (probably in a fit of spasticness) bought me one. I cried because I really didn’t want it, I just liked the idea of having it. The gameboy still sits in it’s original box untouched.
Plus I have a really nice coffee guy that I go to every work day. He’s my first friendly face in the morning, my first smile and I wouldn’t give that up for all the pretty coffee machines in the world
You know how I feel about Target.
I have a wishlist on Amazon, plus one for my sister and one for my dad. I also made one for Xmas gifts for this year. My personal list has four hundred and ninety items on it. !!! I just put them there and never buy them. No one knows about the wishlist; it’s kind of like my “if/when I win the lottery” list.
My Xmas list for others? I did the math the other day on that one; if I bought everything on it, it would total $800.
I’m just crazy generous.
Did you bank one third of that bonus, as the maxim states?
I say go for it. With all the cold weather, you should pamper yourself.
stuff is stuff.
Buying yourself a present is the best. You never have to worry about what to get, what size or color you should pick, or how much to spend!
Check this out: http://www.singleservecoffee.com/
I bought a French press thing to make my own coffee (to save $ by not going to Starbucks), but I almost never use it because it takes too long. So if this is fast, and not messy (not much to wash out afterwards), I say “Go for it!” after an appropriate “longing” period.
I have been wanting a shower radio forever and would never buy one for myself. I finally got one for my birthday this year. Buy the coffee maker, you’ll feel…better caffinated!
So heather- how many $1.50 dunkin’ donuts medium coffees can I get for the price of that coffee maker?
Like, 33. Teach a man to fish, right?
Give a fish a coffee machine and she drinks for a lifetime.
at least you can think of things you want. for some reason, whenever my mom asks me what i want for xmas/my bday/etc i instantly go blank and can’t think of the 800 things i’ve been whining that i wanted for the past year. damned shame when there’s people standing around ready to buy you stuff, i tell ya
FISH! I need your help! One of my favourite blogs is up for an award – I looked for your blog on the listings, and it’s not there! Scandalous! I’ll hve to nominate you next time I see these come around – and she’s neck and neck with the competition for first place. Would you go check out her blog and if you feel it’s worthy, post a plug for her??? Please?
Here’s her site: http://thereignofellen.blogspot.com
Thanks a kajillion!!! ~ Hillary
oops, I forgot to mention – the contest closes at midnight eastern time tonight (Dec 15). Fish’s readers, you can go vote, too! Follow the link on the top right corner of Ellen’s page!
Funny. I asked my mother for the same robe myself this year. Always wanted one, could never buy it for myself. And yesterday I just learned I might be getting one from my company as well. Too much of a good thing? Yup.
heard from a colleague today that the senseo coffee maker is not worth it. her comment: “I just got a Senseo coffee machine and it sucks! Coffee is hot for a second then stone cold. Itâs noisy and the Senseo coffee is disgusting. Don’t bother.”
Doubt anyone mentioned this, but – about your “wanting (insert current obsession) makes me alive” statement – you MUST read Gogol’s ‘Overcoat’ – your whole life will make much more sense.
esl is right.. got my mother a senseo last year, and now i am doomed, doomed, doomed i tell you! every visit with her includes this godawful muck- give me a drip-brewed cuppa joe ANY. OLD. DAY. over this crap. please, try before you buy.
I totally get the thing about the robe. I have my eyes on a $60 pair of headphones this year. I could spend a hundred dollars on a meal but could never bring myself to buy a $60 pair of headphones!
Maybe you should buy it. I mean I find it to be very therapeutic to have something to obsess on… in a healthy way! I mean you can learn about all different types of coffee beans and travel to places where they grow coffee. That can be one of “your things” everyone should have “a thing”. Poeple will think I am really looking forward to seeing fish (without the intention to insult, I have no idea what your name is???) and having some of her gorgeous coffee. Sometimes it’s just the small things in life that can satisfy you. They don’t have to be expensive or stunning or even chrome (as is the trend here in London) they just have to be the things you’ll appreciate time after time. Whatever can perk me up and possibly put a smile on my face is worth the investment.
get the coffee maker, but get the tassimo instead of the senseo. i work at a store that sells both, and have sampled the product from both, and the tassimo makes far, far superior stuff.
I should HOPE tassimo is better than senseo – that extra $100 better be for SOMETHING.
There’s a hundred bucks difference?! Well, that makes that decision easy!
awesome entry! I think I’m exactly like this… I’ve yearned for an iPod for forever, and I think I’m almost at the point where it might be unsatisfying to get it! I even use iTunes constantly to buy songs, listen to shared music at work and the radio too… but there’s just something about having that unfulfilled obsession. LOVE how you described it!
maybe it’s just me, but I always have a feeling that if I get exactly what I want, that is the moment that the universe implodes and we start over.
I find it difficult to justify either, when Dunkin Donuts coffee is the best in the world, by far!
wanting something is like a gumball machine. Turn the handle get your gumball and another one falls in to place. (get what you want, want something else). It is like a drug…But it sure feels great (for a day)
This fish also loves Princess Bride…and the senseo. Have the DVD, still yearning for the senseo. I’m off to start my wishlist at Amazon. Shawn, are you there?
Nice to see we haven’t forgotten the true message of Christmas… peace on earth, love of our fellow mankind, and buying stuff that we’ve wanted for a long time. Let the good times roll!
Dude, the TRUE meaning of Christmas, if you will, has to do with worshipping the miraculous birth of the Lord and Savior from a virgin.
Since I neither believe in the Baby J or his legendary birth, and I don’t need a holiday to love mankind, consumerism is the only thing left to celebrate.
Ha! Merry Consumermas Fish. Mike! Bite your tongue! Dunkin Donuts is the best coffee? Fish I’ve come to the conclusion that not giving into that pining feeling immediately (or in my case at all. School bills quickly interupt my merry consumer dreams) is a sign of being all grown up. Or at least that’s what I tell myself to avoid going into some serious credit card debt.
Caveat Emptor!: I too pined over a beautiful coffee maker. I justified the purchase in terms of hard economics; I spend over $700 a year at Starbucks. It was win-win: I buy the nice coffee maker and save overall by making my own daily coffee. All went smoothly for a while, but then I really began to miss the Bux. Now my appliance gathers dust and I’m back to sipping away my take-home pay.
Maybe you could get a hatstand? It would go well with your hair!
Every time I find my way to your blog, I am glad I did. It’s marvelous!
Hey Fish, thanks for the gift idea. I got one for my fiance. Target has a holiday sale on them. They’re now 39.99. You might want to jump on it. Coffee pods are on sale too…2/7.00
That’s on my wish list too! I REALLY hope I get it. That coffee is so damn good.
I just started bugging my family to use Amazon’s wishlist, so I know what to get them.
As for the coffeepot…Buy it! BUY IT!
Hi Fish,
Get the Senseo, I love it, it’s great. I have people coming to visit me that never used to stop by before I had it….
my mom has the senseo also. she loves it. of course with it being Dutch designed and produced you can’t go wrong. We have 16 million people here and 10 million Senseo’s were sold this year. Pretty impressive numbers.