Red white red red (a little late)

As of Friday, heisenbug and I have been together for eleven years. I have my binary roses up on the bookcase in our living room... red white red red is for 1011, the number of years we've been together in binary. It's a tradition. This year the roses' stems are cut to about 4" long, which is not tradition, but I broke one almost immediately while trying to get Hobbes to sniff the fragrant part of it and so we trimmed the rest. Whups. According to heisenbug, they're now put high up so they're safe from me. (Awwww. I can not be trusted with pretty flowers.)

We went to Trattoria de Monica on recommendation from a co-worker, and it was reasonably tasty. VERY small and cute. I think we'll go back, although next time I'll get regular menu items instead of specials.

Anyway, the point is that I still squish my bug. I asked him what we should do with our next ten or so years, and he proposed "similar stuff but kind of different". Sounds pretty good to me.

Also on LJ:
red white white
red white red
red red white
red red red
red white white white
red white white red
red white red white

Giving up moderation for Lent, and that sort of thing

I wanted to post briefly about my "not buying new objects" policy. What is it? Well, with an exception for house stuff this year, I'm not buying things for myself between approximately New Year's and approximately March 5. That doesn't mean no toothpaste (consumables don't count as things), and it doesn't mean no joint purchases like replacing the small omelet pan I destroyed by leaving the heat on (that was joint property). It does mean no buying magazines, books, music, shoes, clothing, trinkets, computer games, or earrings.

Last year I really was trying to hold down expenses; this year I'm not. So why do it again? Part of it is to take a break from constantly thinking about buying things, from looking through every catalog wondering if I'm going to buy something or not. For the moment every single decision is no. It kind of clears my head out a little bit, after the buying and thing-centricity of Christmas. Also, knowing about hedonic adaptation, I really believe this:

The real pleasure-seeking is the combination of luxury and austerity in such a way that the luxury can really be felt.
~G.K. Chesterton.

I'm more than halfway done with my "thing fast", and so far this year it's been very easy. People gave me lots of Christmas books and I haven't had trouble rationing out the fiction ones. I've had three incidents of irritation and chafing... as in Zen practice, the idea here is to just observe them (and make a note of the thing I wanted, so I can buy it in March if I still want it then).

• Last weekend I really felt like buying a certain magazine. I think it was just a Cosmo or something trashy, but it looked like fun for reading at the gym and then leaving there.
• Athleta sent a catalog that focused on yoga and I wanted one of everything! Most of my yoga pants are getting saggy so I really need more, and I want some of their skirts and skorts too (skorts, I've finally realized, are the solution to the way short skirts often ride up on me). On the same damn day I got a Pyramid Collection catalog that I also liked, and I sulked for a couple of days before managing to let this go.
• Today I heard this song at the gym and managed to identify it. I like it and I'd have bought the mp3 already if not for the fast. I guess that if I subscribed to Rhapsody or something similar then maybe music wouldn't be a "thing" anymore, but for now I don't and it still is.

I am going to appreciate the hell out of my new yoga pants. One more month.

I kind of want to know about you. Do you think this is crazy, or do you take breaks from things that you normally enjoy? If you do (nevers, I know you give up LJ and FB every January), what is your experience of that and what do you think you get from it?