Breaking the habit

I've always considered myself a saver. Not exactly a saver of money, though goodness knows I like to save it, but a saver of stuff. And not in the "I'm hoarding all these shoes" way (well, maybe), but more in a "this is special so I'm going to save it for an occasion/to make it last longer."

I do this with everything from clothes to food. But recently I've decided to try and consciously fight this instinct.

Those gorgeous strawberries I wanted to eat only a few at a time so I could savor them? Half of them end up shriveled and in the trash because I forgot about them. The cheese that cost $5.99 a pound, thereby requiring careful rationing of each delicious sliver? Inevitably it molds. Even the special sparkly shoes I don't pull out but once a year end up losing their shine, buried in a pile of the more frequently favored footwear.

This is bad. I should not do this. My instinct to "save it!" ends up wasting it instead.

Hence, my resolution. I think I have been marginally successful so far. The grapes are almost gone and that's a start, because usually a bunch of grapes ends up breeding angry raisins on the bottom shelf of my fridge.

Incidentally and as a complete departure from the topic at hand, a teacher once told me he saw a translated copy of "the Grapes of Wrath" in Japan being marketed as "The Angry Raisins." Pretty sure a lot of Japanese were rightfully confused.