Dear Kid,

Have you ever had something inanimate call to you?

Of course you have.

Sometimes it’s food. “I’m delicious!” sings the donut, “Try me!”

Sometimes it’s a fancy guitar. “I will play beautiful music,” murmur the strings seductively. “Buy me…and I’ll be yours.”

Yesterday, the going-out-of-business office supply store sang a siren song I couldn’t resist. (On the plus side, you and Pi now have some school supplies for next semester.)

What is it about office supplies that calls me? I have no idea.

Clearly, something filed in a manila folder is just as filed as the same thing filed in a teal polka dot folder.

But the fashion forward folders look so much better. Feel so much more….more….special.

And paperclips. Regular wire paperclips work perfectly well. But when they are purple or orange or shaped into hearts or spirals they somehow make paperclipping more…more…more something.

Pens. Question: Can you ever truly have enough pens? Answer: Um, yes. And we do. So why was I forced (forced, I tell you) to buy you a package of pens? I don’t know.

And it’s not like I could have stayed home. Oh, no.

I was happily at home, typing away when the song broke through the strongest shields imaginable. I was forced (FORCED, I tell you) to put away the Puppy, grab the car keys, and wander the clearance aisles like a madwoman. On the plus side, my Fitbit tells me I walked 1,500 or so steps on my outing.

And I have a small supply of polka dot folders.

The best news is that there are several more weeks before the store closes, so there is plenty of time for me to check back for serious mark downs.

Love, Mom