Splurging on myself

It's curious the little things we consider splurging, especially if it's for ourselves. Not just money, but time, food, whatever. After this morning's meeting I called a friend who just returned from far away over break. We sat on her couch for hours intently knitting and catching up on the last month (splurge #1). I'm still on my travel scarf, and she was working on armwarmers, an item she churns out with a regularity that puts my months-on-one-project to shame. Our conversations cover such an array of topics, and quite frequently they help me sort out answers to things.

After a while we walked up to the vegetarian restaurant for brunch. It's usually a long wait, so we both brought along our knitting and were glad we did. We finally ordered our food, and (splurge #2) got broiled grapefruit on the side. Sounds silly I know, but I decided I wasn't going to get one even though I wanted it since my main dish was so big, but then blurted it out to the waitress before I could stop myself, and I'm so glad I did. Mmm...it had a hardened glaze of brown sugar and spices, and without grapefruit spoons it was a glorious sticky mess to eat. It may have to become a regular thing for me.

Walking back my ears got cold, and I mentioned these behind-the-head earmuffs called 180s that I've wanted for years. She convinced me to finally go get some, and I bought a pair on the way home (splurge #3) in ice blue polar fleece -- a color I love, but looks terrible on me. By now I was on a roll and picked up a cute black and red pinstripe skirt for work on sale. And I've spent the rest of the day doing 'me' things, like making a leatherbound journal. The mountain of dishes and laundry wasn't particularly fun, but it's done now and I feel better for it. Heck, I might just go to bed now and luxuriate in the extra hours of bed-time that would give me.

Funny how once you start splurging on little things for yourself, you don't want to stop. And really, most of the time is there a reason to deny ourselves these small pleasures? If I gave you a couple hours free time and 5 bucks, tell me you wouldn't think of something wonderful to do with it. I think all of us need to step back and treat ourselves the way we treat others. It's so easy to splurge on family & friends, yet we deny it for ourselves, out of a misplaced sense of . . . *shrug*. . . you know what I mean, I'm sure.