From the Mind of Meegs

The running joke along one side of my family tree is that all those born of our seed have "addictive personalities." Our history would indicate that this is accurate. But most of us are not cokeheads or sex addicts. We just live our lives at a slightly sub-addiction level at which there is no true enslavement, but also no half-assedness.

That said, here are a few things that I am addicted to.

1. Hair gel. And not just get, but mousse and hairspray and shampoo and conditioner and anything else that promises to tame my mane. My accursed blond mop is definitely not curly, but also not straight. I suppose that makes it "wavy" but I think "ratty" is probably a more accurate description. Some days, I want the products that will allegedly give me bouncy waves and curls. Other days, I want the products that will give me shiny, straight hair. So I need a full arsenal of both. If it's a miracle product, I'm there. Less frizz? Sign me up. Moisture? I crave. Volume? I need. The only thing better (worse?) than a hair product with tempting but often empty promises of hair nirvana is a hair product with tempting but often empty promises of hair nirvana that is on sale.

2. Running do-hickeys. By far the most expensive, but also the most useful, is my Garmin. I use it several times a week. I went with the slightly less expensive model that didn't have a HR monitor, but now I wish I had the HR monitor. Sigh. I also have a hydration belt, hats, an iPod carrier and special headphones, and an endless supply of those Propel packets. I love energy bars and I was addicted to energy gels until I almost threw one up 10.5 miles into a mid-summer run and that kind of killed the romance.

I'm also shamelessly addicted to running and workout attire. I am fanatical about what I wear: no cotton, not even in the underwear. If I'm going to wear cotton underwear while running, I might as well just roll around in a pile of wet grass for a few hours before I go. Last weekend, it took 15 minutes to talk myself out of buying a long-sleeved black wicking tee. I didn't need it. It's too hot to wear long sleeves inside, and now that the days are noticeably shortening up (yes, in September--'tis sad), I am certainly not going to go running outside in black. But it's sooooo pretty...

This weekend, I'm in the market for a single water bottle with one of those fitting-over-your-hand-thingy straps, reflective tape, and a foam roller. This addiction also extends to track jackets, even though most of those are misnamed since they don't really wick at all. But they still look cute with my normal clothes.

3. Breakfast cereals. I currently have seven breakfast cereals in my house, eight if you count the massive cannister of oatmeal I finished up this morning. This is typical. I'm convinced cereal is the most perfect food ever. I eat oatmeal just about everyday for breakfast, even in the summer. It's so versatile. Over the course of my life, I've probably tried about four or five dozen different oatmeal combinations, and every last one was damn tasty. This morning I added some Grape Nuts Trail Mix Crunch (one of the other seven cereals), mixed berries, milk and cinnamon. My favorites are:

oatmeal, sliced peaches, cinnamon, milk
oatmeal, pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg and little bit of brown sugar, milk
oatmeal, peanut butter, sliced apples, milk
oatmeal, these orange-flavored dried cranberries you get from Trader Joe's, milk
oatmeal, a scoop of protein powder, blueberries, flax seeds, milk

Tasty! I'm also a fan of almost everything Kashi makes, including the box of Go Lean I've got right now. But lest you think I'm totally virtuous, the other five cereals in my house have a tad more sugar to them. I've got Golden Grahams, Cinnamon Toast Crunch (proof that God loves us), Lucky Charms, Reese's PB Crunch and Honeycomb. My concession to health and maturity is that I now consume these only for desserts or snacks, instead of breakfast. Mostly good, except on days like yesterday when I had Honeycomb for lunch, then again for snack, and followed my dinner with a dessert of Reese's PB Crunch and Lucky Charms. What? It's almost shopping day. I'm running low on food!

4. School supplies. I finished my MA a year ago this past June. So it's been just about exactly two years since I last confronted the first day of a new school year. And really, what traditional school supplies do you need for grad school? I got by with a pen and a notebook for jotting stuff down. A laptop and a stack of pretentious books are the real tools of a grad student. But still, every year around this time, I find myself stocking up. Most importantly, there's the notebooks and composition books. I do use these for some of my writings, though I buy way more than I can ever fill. But when single subject notebooks are on sale for 5/$1 or--even better--10/$1, how can you not buy 30? It's $3, people! 3/$1 composition notebooks: sign me up for 6!

Pencil boxes can be used to organize all sorts of things, especially when they go on for a quarter each. I have a gorgeous set of 30 fine-tip markers that I have never used once. I love blue ink pens, and my habit of losing them means I'll need a fresh supply of 25 or so every fall. That allows me to lose one every two weeks. Colored pens are also nice to have, if they can be gotten for the right price (and in August/September, they always can). And I'll also need some three-ring binders and file folders, just in case this is the year I finally organize my paper once and for all.

5. Target. Mostly because it enables my addiction to all of the aforementioned.