And I'm not even drunk!

Did you ever do something a bit crazy and stupid when you were drunk? Okay, drunk is such an ugly word, let's just say "tipsy". I mean, specifically, did you ever BUY something you might not have otherwise and then regretted it the next day?

I once knew a flight attendant - and believe me, like most flight attendants she didn't make a lot of money - who was out all night in London and then, still up the next morning, bought a $500 pair of shoes. Whoops! She said they were really great shoes, though.

Most people are probably not going to be up partying ALL NIGHT and until the stores open the next morning and then think "let's go shoe shopping!" but these days you don't have to wait for the stores to open, they're open 24/7 on the Internet.

Not long ago, I read a really funny Yelp review by someone who discovered the joys of checking out music at the public library after drinking one night and waking up the next morning to find she had run up a $140 bill on iTunes. Then there is the book J-pod, in which one of the characters rants about how there should be a lock you can set on your computer that doesn't allow you to use it for 12 hours after you start drinking. Not a bad idea!

The other night, I came home a bit tipsy and I ended up ordering Robyn Hitchcock's "Element of Light" album from Amazon. It's not available on iTunes and the CD is out of print, so only used cds at inflated prices are available. I spent $35 PLUS shipping on that cd.

Really, though, I'd had my eye on that CD for a while. Once it arrives I guess I'll rip it to MP3 and the actual CD will sit with all my other CDs gathering dust (anybody want a mediocre CD collection?) but I'm actually happy I ordered it, I don't have drunken buyers remorse at all.

The thing I've discovered is, I totally don't need to be drinking to do many of the types of things associated with reduced inhibitions, and that definitely includes online shopping.

Yesterday is a perfect example of this. I was feeling rather under the weather, and I basically spent the whole day in bed...with my laptop...researching stuff and shopping. Uh-oh. First I bought some baking supplies. Okay, that wasn't so bad. Then, I decided I finally needed to learn to sew.

So...I bought a few books on sewing. I own a sewing machine already, but I've never sewed a single stitch on it. I even managed to lose the owner's manual, but lucky for me I dated a guy who was going to use the machine so he had found a new manual for it online. When we broke up, I made sure the machine AND the new manual stayed with me. Of course, that was a number of years ago and HE might have actually used the machine while I still haven't. But I'm going to remedy that! So I bought the books. Okay, fine.

Then, I decided I needed a dress pattern. And and apron pattern. One of the books actually comes with a few patterns, but they are for purses and stuff, and I was so excited that I'M FINALLY GOING TO LEARN TO SEW that I thought I might as well take a peek at a few other patterns.

So what did I do late last night? I ordered almost $90 of patterns! Actually, it came to over $100 with shipping and tax. And I wasn't even drinking! I was trying to be reasonable...I went over and over the items in my shopping cart and I did get rid of a few patterns but I was like "I need ALL of them!" I could sew all night and all day and I think these patterns would last me quite a long time.

Especially since...I don't have any fabric. Yup, I bought about a dozen patterns and I have...well, I do have this one piece of fabric I bought many years ago because I fell in love with it and wanted to make a dress with it. It's definitely not enough fabric to make a whole bunch of somethings. Plus, I don't have any of the other things you need for sewing:

Sharp scissors
dressmaker shears
tape measure
yardstick
drafting triangle
tailor's chalk
needles
thread
ironing board
buttons
etc.

I didn't even have a table to put my sewing machine on, but of course I ordered one of those, too, last night. Maybe I'm just permanently drunk or something. All I know is now I need some nice fabric, a few other things, and then I am going to SEW LIKE CRAZY.

Be a nice person and buy Jinx some fabric!