I, Mrs. M., take thee, School Supplies, as my lawfully wedded.....

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! Hearing this annual Staples commercial is truly music to my ears.

You see, I have a bit of a problem, infatuation, love/hate love relationship with school supplies. (The first step of recovery is admission, so here I go).

This 'problem' of mine dates way back to my childhood (as most do). A friend of mine and I started collecting pens in grade school. We literally collected dozens and dozens and brought them to school in massive pencil cases every day. She found out through her aunt that if we wrote to Bic Canada and gave them suggestions for new pen designs, they would write us back and include sample packages of their latest product. So we did that - many times. There was nothing quite like receiving a nice large package in the mail full of beautiful new writing utensils.

My obsession grew. I used to LOVE going to Grand & Toy. Grand & Toy 15 years ago is VERY different than G&T today. Back then (in the good ol' days) all of the pens and pencils were sold loose, allowing you to test them out before purchasing them!!! I used to love carefully choosing and trying out new purchases quite often.

Despite the fact that I owned so many, I always knew exactly how many I would have in any given pen holder or pencil case at any given time. To the point that my poor sister or mom would come and 'borrow' one from my room, and by the end of the day, I'd be asking everyone in the house who 'stole' my pens.

My love of writing utensils has now grown to include markers (Go Sharpies!), Post-it-Notes (super-sticky are the best!) and stickers (just found out that there is a Sandylion Sticker Warehouse in Markham!). My desk at school is all ready to go for next week with a plethora of brand new markers, a variety of sticky notes (thanks again sister for the Korean post-it notes of bears doing yoga!) and stickers galore. (I swear I teach because of the kids, not because of my problem!)

Each year I look forward to perusing the aisles of Staples (of course I have a membership!), Costco (great deals in bulk!), Walmart and the teacher's holy grail of stores, Dollerama (insert angels singing here) to fulfill my back-to-school-addiction (BTSA for short).

Finally, I am proud to say that I showed MASSIVE restraint the other day when picking up some "essential" 'That Was Easy' Staples buttons for an upcoming function, I forced myself to put down the amazingly priced, beautiful, clear bucket of 50 pens for only $7.00!!! (Although, I am still thinking about them).

So now that I've admitted that I am 100% certifiably crazy, I ask .... does anyone out there relate? Anyone? Bueller? :)

M.