Shopping for dishes

I love shopping for housewares, almost too much. I love it so much that I can never buy anything. How does that happen, you may ask. Well, I can explain it through my adventures trying to find dishes.

Every time I go to Crate and Barrel, or Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, or Sur La Table, or any other store that may sell dishes, I fall in love. There are so many dishes and no doubt, I will like at least one set. However, I will stand there in the store, staring at the dishes for about half an hour. I ponder about prices, I try to imagine the dishware in my apartment, with my food on it, how it will fit in with my existing dishes, what it says about me as a person (yes, I think about this). After all of this, I will walk out of the store empty handed the vast majority of the time. It comes down to the ultimate decision to commit to a set of dishes, which I almost always fail to do. I keep on thinking, "What if I find another set of plates/cups/bowls at _next store down the line_ that I love? Do I want to be folksy, modern, simple classic, elegant, whimsical, etc?" So, because of the possibly of greener pastures with prettier dishes down the line, I end up getting no dishes (fortunately, I already have a set of dishware that are ok for the meantime. Note to self: never buy dishes with a metallic rim on them.), so it's not like I'm eating out of the palm of my hands.

So, I guess you never knew that I think about dishes so intensely. Yes, I need a life and perhaps more serious things to think about. However, as I was thinking about this the other day, I realized that I think of dating in an errily similar way (reread the post and maybe it will give you a laugh). In translation, I have commitment issues in relationships, as well as in dishware. I date (go shopping) a lot, but never end up commiting (buying) for fear that I'll miss out on something greater down the road. It's something I knew I always had to deal with, but the revelation that it parallels my shopping pursuits was just too weird (and gave for quite a laugh with a friend on Saturday, status-post Friday night date gossip).

On the other hand, I bought a fabulous set of bowls from Anthropologie that I'm in love with. I want to eat everything out of them.