Confessions of an office supply junkie

I made a purchase today.  A purchase that pleased me quite a bit.

I bought a Rolodex!

Okay, so it’s a small Rolodex.  But still, I got rather giddy when I “checked out.”  Sure, I could use the Outlook contact list.  But what happens if my work computer crashes?  (It just might any day now.)  Or if our server goes down?  (Because THAT has never happened before. **snort**)  Or the power goes out?  (Rarer, but it has happened.)  If all of the contact information for my clients is in Outlook…I’m screwed!  And trust me, the post-it notes all over my walls and whiteboard are starting to get really annoying.  So, I bought my little Rolodex.

Binder clips.  Ah, binder clips.  My heart skips a happy beat when I think about binder clips.  Have just a few pages that you need to hold together?  There’s a small binder clip for that.  Need to deliver 3 chapters of your dissertation to your adviser?  There’s a large binder clip for that.  And you’re pretty much guaranteed that it’s not going to fall off and it won’t be easily lost.  Oh!  And they come in different colors!  **swoon**

Yes, I was the kid who hoarded the carbon copy paper.  (Who’s old enough to remember that?)  I had a drawer full of typewriter correction tape.  (Who’s so young they have no clue what I’m talking about?)  I had a cork-board wall so that I could use the varied and colorful pushpins in my possession.  (I didn’t really pin that much stuff on the cork-board…I just had a lot of pushpins.)

I worked at Staples for about a year when I was teaching at Central Michigan University.  Odd job.  Paid minimum wage.  Annoying uniform shirt.  But, oh God, I got to unload pallets of office supplies!  I touched each product as it was unpacked and priced.  I arranged shelves and shelves and shelves of pens and pencils and erasers and sharpeners and binders and transparency film and magnets and envelopes and legal pads and post-it notes and **sigh** binder clips.

I hated it when I had to quit that job.

So, yeah, my little Rolodex is going to make me rather giddy when it arrives on Friday.  I’ll open it immediately and take it out of the box.  I’ll unwrap all of the little cards and make sure the lid works the right way.  It doesn’t matter that I’ll be at home and won’t be able to do anything with it until I get to work on Monday.  That Rolodex will make my weekend fun!

I also have a rather unhealthy obsession with purple pens.