I have a confession to make.
Now, before you get all freaked out, let me assure you, it’s not something that would land me on the cover of a tabloid or have the paparazzi camped out in front of my home.
You won’t see my face all over the internet because of it, followed by remarks about how, “She seemed so nice and normal.”
But it’s something that folks may look at me strangely for nonetheless.
Here it is: I…Love…Office Supplies…
There, I’ve said it. Whew, what a load off my mind.
See what I mean, though. People may look at me strangely, but I’m not going to make any magazine covers with this admission.
Unless, of course, it’s the cover of “Geek Digest,” and I’ve been chosen their Person of the Year. That, I could envision.
But I digress…
For as long as I can remember, I have loved and coveted all kinds of office supplies—especially the pastel and jewel-toned ones.
I first admitted my love of all things officey when friends and I were talking about what we would do when we hit the big lottery.
After all the paying off of bills, taking of vacations, helping those less fortunate, I said, “I would go to Staples and buy tons of pretty-colored office supplies—everything I’ve ever wanted! I’d fill up carts and carts and bring them home!!!”
Silence…
Actually, perhaps what I really heard were crickets…
Yes, I had silenced my friends who were probably thinking that doing anything else crazy with lottery money would be so much better.
But I can’t help it! I needed magazine holders for my office (working as a full-time writer, I get a lot of magazines, and my previous storage spot—the office floor—just wasn’t working anymore).
I found beautiful pastel ones—and now purple, pink, blue, and green holders keep my magazines organized.
And, let’s face it, they make the office look pretty spiffy too.
Years ago, office supply stores didn’t carry a lot of things that were in pretty colors. Manila folders were all light beige, hanging file folders were army green, and paperclips were silver.
But then the colors came and since they started coming, they haven’t stopped.
My office now sports multi-colored paper clips in a jar on my desk, binders in sky blue, royal blue, kelly green, evergreen, sage green, dark pink, light pink…I’ve got Post-It notes in all colors of the rainbow. I even have a pink hole puncher.
Looking back, I think I was doomed to love office supplies. My dad, besides working as a supervisor at a government agency, ordered office supplies for the office. He often tried them out to see what would work best.
No one called him weird. No one thought it strange that he would make sure he was buying what the office needed. Of course, at this time in the early and mid ‘70s, nothing was in pretty colors.
Anyway, I think it’s in my genes. I want my office to look bright and cheery! It makes me feel happy and fun!
Um, or perhaps it just helps me get through the work day without wanting to scream…
Nah, that can’t be it.
I’ve got my habit under control now, though. I no longer pick up jumbo packs of paper clips in red, blue, green, yellow, pink, and purple, and say to my husband, “But really, I know I’ll use them.”
I won’t fall for the special sales or the buy-one-get-one offers anymore. I won’t pick up boxes of pastel folders with the thought that my filing systems will somehow get better because of their attractiveness. Nope, I’ve got enough folders now.
Yeah, I thought all this and believed it. Until a recent trip for a necessary item—printer ink.
That’s when I saw them—shimmering, taunting me from a display full of pink staplers, clip boards, and pens.
Pink staples…
But I didn’t buy them. No, not me. So if you get anything from me with a pink staple on it, um, I have no idea how it got there. Really…
Michele Wojciechowski, when she’s not dreaming of boxes of rainbow-colored Sharpies, writes Wojo’s World™ from her home office in Baltimore.