My Shopping Problem, #1: What to do with myself?

Okay, so: I shop too much. I have been shopping too much for quite awhile. Leaving movies alone - I got a couple of those too - this last week, I've purchased the following records and CDs:

Frank Zappa: One Size Fits All, Lumpy Gravy, Chunga's Revenge, Freak Out, You Are What You Is, Zoot Allures, Cruising with Ruben and the Jets

Warren Zevon: 1st s/t album, Bad Luck Streak at Dancing School

Shriekback: Care, Jam Science, Oil and Gold

The Jam: In the City, All Mod Cons, Sound Affects

Andy Partridge: My Failed Songwriting Career vol. 1 (EP)

Andy Partridge with Robyn Hitchcock: Planet England 10"

The Ramones: Too Tough to Die (CD only, sadly, but spinning now, and with a ton of bonus demos, etc).

The Velvet Underground: The Scepter Sessions

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: I Love Rock'n'Roll

...now, even for me, that's an excessive list of records for one week's shopping. Yes, $100 was paid for on a gift card my coworkers sent me with a Get Well Soon card. Yes, many of these items were second-hand. Yes, I am sort of running at limited capacity at the moment, recovering from my surgery, and really appreciate the extra entertainment, since I am spending a LOT of time at home, not working, seldom going out. But I can see why Erika - who wants us to be saving for a house - is concerned about my consumption, especially since, while the above is a rather excessive week of record-buying... it's not UNPRECEDENTED, you dig? (I also periodically sell big chunks of my collection, but Erika has figured out that that is just a phase in the overall pattern of acquiring stuff, where I am basically just making room and money for more record-shopping).

The problem is: I want to go outside. Waking up this morning, reclining in the bed while the cat pawed at me - Erika off visiting family - I realized that I have quite a bit of energy and a strong desire to interact with the world outside my walls - to chat with people, to do social things in a social space. But what social spaces are available to me, other than stores? Who do I know that I could drop in on and say hi to, who is not, for example, Ford, Penny, Dave, or Luke at Red Cat, or Rob or Ben at Neptoon, or Jeff at Dandelion, or...? (I never have felt all that close to the dudes at Audiopile, tho' I get a couple of stories from Mark now and then, and used to enjoy chatting with Geoff - who doesn't come in since COVID hit). 

Now, I have told myself - have been telling myself for awhile - that this week is the LAST WEEK, that I need to take a lengthy moratorium from shopping, a "media fast," where I just enjoy the records and movies and books and so forth that I *have,* and add nothing new to the stacks. I still, obviously, need the Severin Folk Horror box, since I have an extra or two on it, and there are a few things that linger in my awareness ("I shoulda got that Shut Up and Play Your Guitar Some More at Neptoon while I was there"). But I could easily declare my collection COMPLETE right now, and just live off it for a year or more. That, in fact, was the idea when I was at the last shop yesterday, grabbing a final Zappa and those Shriekbacks: "Okay, there, my collection is done, I can live with this, I am finally finished, finally have what I need to take me forward into the future..." 

Today, though, it feels differently. Besides the pleasure of some social interaction - chatting with Rob about how he knows Jeff Simmons of the Mothers, say - there is meaning and satisfaction to be had in the LOOKING for things, and re-enforcement and reward in FINDING them. And it's fun to have an excuse to go out and explore my community. With concerts shut down again, with no job to do, and not all that many friends that I see socially - especially few of the "pop over for a cup of tea" variety - if I want to go out, it basically means some variant on GOING SHOPPING.

I will probably go thrift in North Vancouver. It's easy enough to get to, I sometimes have luck at the Sally Anns there, and it never costs me THAT much. But I would like SOME OTHER OPTION, some other way to satisfy the desire for social activity, exploration, and seeking/finding. Honestly don't know what that looks like right now... I would like to reinvent myself, here, but there's a reason I've adapted to the world thus, and the world itself isn't changing much... at least not for the better.

(Incidentally, the demos on this Ramones album are great! I never feel very confident about demos but the sound quality is fab and the performances are equal to or better than the actual studio album!).