The chair is a tractor seat
when you live in a barn
Today is the first day of school for the public schools as well as for Marshall University.
I feel left out.
I was that kid that loved the first day of school. My enthusiasm would often wane after a few weeks, but the first day contains such promise. Adults rarely get that one day when everything is reset to zero and it all starts over.
My first day of school was always preceded by shopping for new clothes and school supplies. I was almost always more excited about the school supplies than the clothes.
On that first day of school, I would set out with a book bag (backpacks didn’t exist except for backpacking) loaded for every conceivable need whether it be writing my name or having to immediately produce a 700-page dissertation.
For most of my education the big box office supply stores didn’t exist – Kmart and the PX were the retailers I used most often. I would fairly swoon at the rows and stacks of notebooks and pens and rulers and pencil cases and erasers and Trapper Keepers and folders and notebook paper. I had a strong preference for the college-ruled notebooks and paper.. Even now, I can’t go into an office supply store without buying some “first day of school” item that I don’t need and probably won’t use. I have pointedly resisted getting an Office Depot credit card.
After leaving school, my passion for office supplies has been trumped by that for desks. I’m a desk junkie. I have three at home, two at the office and can’t get through a furniture store without looking at desks.
My desks are fully stocked with all the critical office supplies – pens, paper, journals, staplers, hole-punchers, calculators, tape dispensers, toys, souvenirs, essential oils, folders, binders, motivational materials, blank CDs and a coffee cup.
Oddly enough, I do all of my paperwork sitting on the sofa.
W. Va. Fur and Root 
I have always enjoyed back-to-school supplies myself. In fact I was in Staples last weekend and became fairly wobbly at all the new stuff. I am rather fond of UNIBALL Gel Impact pens with a broad stroke and filled my basket with a couple of boxes…and then there were bookshelves…oh my. Anyway, I think I walked out of Staples with $80 worth of stuff including a tie-dye nylon book sock which will not fit any book I have. Oh well…
Ok, Ok, Ok, Here’s the comment from Angie….
School supplies – Oh boy! Except when you really are in school, in which case, they just remind you that you are getting ready to embark on the road to insanity again.
Embarking? I’ve been on that well-trod road for decades now.
Connie
or…like that line in You’ve Got Mail…something about sending boquets of sharpened pencils…
My co-worker’s husband just gave her a bouquet of sharpened pencils. It was quite attractive. She and I were discussing our love of school supplies which may have been the impetus for this entry.
Connie
I love office supplies so much that I volunteered to take over the task of keeping our office stocked. Bliss! Ink cartridges, paper in every color, a dozen kinds of pens and markers, folders, labels, paper clips of all sizes and varieties. Markers — my god, the markers. Even, sometimes, a new stapler or paper punch, be still my heart. And now, as if all that weren’t enough — it’s time to buy new calendars. Calendars, desk calendars, planning calendars, wall calendars, pocket calendars. It’s almost too much. My tour of Office Max is like a mini-vacation every couple of weeks. And I get to do it with somebody else’s money.
Must be a “leo thing” 🙂
Considering I don’t wear a watch and generally don’t have much interest in what time it is, I have a passion for calendars.
Connie
I don’t know if this will show up or not. I feel like I do when I try to use the video camera. The first words you hear are always “is it on” and “what does the flashing light mean” as the camera catches someone’s feet.
What is this fetish with office supplies? Been smelling too much white out?? I don’t like pencils, spiral notebooks, three ring binders, or those things you stick pages in to protect them.
A pen, notebook, paper clips, and stapler suit me just fine.
You pour your heart out about war, loneliness, the beauty of nature/wildlife/culture, yada, yada – and finally you get responses to school supplies. go figure.
And I do admit, I always like a new, fresh, legal pad to write on.
Well, Jody, in the words of John Prine “it’s a big ol’ goofy world.”
I bet if someone took your legal pads away, we’d see some passion. I used to work for this woman who could rif on Bic pens. Bic pens and only Bic pens. I ordered that other brand once. The audible sniff and curl of her lip was something to behold.
Connie
I’ll bet she’s never been the same after that…
I discovered those binder clips in various sizes when I had a ‘desk’ job. They’re so awesome! I kept them in a little tin box and treasured the smallest ones the most. They were almost like jewelry and then there was the way they folded back flat with such precision that they could have been involved in the space program. Now I see that the in the office supply section of the dollar store they come in colors other than brown. What won’t they think of next?
I have tiny dragonfly paperclips, but I don’t use them. I’m afraid I’ll lose them.
Connie
I like colored paperclips and push pins
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