Shopping

I hate to admit this, but I love shopping for office supplies.  In fact, I could almost start my own OSSA (Office Supply Shoppers Anonymous) group.  I don't know what it is, but there's just something about all the pens and pencils and highlighters and notepads and folders and clips and all the other cool little stuff that I enjoy buying.  Maybe it's because there's so much more variety than when I was a kid, or maybe it's because it makes me feel like I'm playing dress-up and I'm pretending to be an adult.  Whatever the reason, I just like it.

Now that I have my own office, I get to pick whatever office supplies I want, not settle for whatever the boss happens to pick.  Of course I have to pay for my own supplies, but I still feel like a kid in a candy store.  But since I am just starting out, I am somewhat overwhelmed at the moment.  Obviously I've bought pens and highlighters and folders and everything else before, but never all at the same time. 

For example, usually when I run out of pens, and go find another pen that I like.  There are certain things that I like in a pen, and considering that you have to decide on qualities such as length, weight, ink color, point size and barrel thickness, just to name a few, selecting that perfect one might take a good 30 minutes.  And once I find that perfect pen, I still need to decide how many to buy.  You want enough so that you don't have to buy more in a couple of weeks, but not so many that if you made a mistake in selecting you "perfect" pen, you don't end up using a pen you're not happy with for the next year.  And don't forget to account for lost pens or pens that walk away. 

At this point I have pretty much purchase no office supplies.  Why?  Because like I said, I'm somewhat overwhelmed at the moment.  But also because I still have some of this stuff left over from when I was in school.  I'll have to buy some supplies that I never used before, like file folders, but I haven't built up the courage to walk into an Office Depot or Staples just yet.  In the meantime, anybody know where I can find an OSSA meeting?