Small Obsessions...

Recently I've become a bit fixated on DM. I don't know what it is about the place that draws me. Something about those rows of colorful cleaning products and beauty supplies. I can just wander around the little store here in Marianske Lazne for ages.
I first went in a couple weeks ago looking for toothpaste, or maybe just a place to pass some time. A place outside the cold rainy weather that has been a blight on me most of the so called summer.
As I walked the aisles it just felt so fresh. Everything was so new and bright. It's amazing the power of marketing as well. I found that I wanted to put these things in a bag and carry them away with me. Somehow just possessing them would bring a little bit of that purity and newness into my life as well.
I'd been in other DMs in Cheb and the like, but there was something about this one that just made me want to stare at the products, to run my finger across the plastic bottles, to try for a hint of the perfume on the testers, to ponder what it would be like to use this, that or the other thing.
I ended up there long than anticipated because there was no one to let me back in the house, so I figured I might as well. I ended up creating a little wish list of excuses to come back to the store, and finally left with the toothpaste and a bottle of lychee-watermelon energy water. Unfortunately it tasted more of artificial watermelon than of lychee, and I can't say it gave me much energy, but it was worth a try.
Several days later I was back. This time to stare at the bottles of nail polish on the wall. I have four or five bottles of polish that I've been carting around the world with me for quite some time now. It's mostly for my toes. I started painting my toe nails around the end of high school. Generally, I've stuck to really mild colors. Silver, opalescent pink, lavender, and one type that perfectly matched the carpet of my apartment (almost called it a flat after so many years...) in Albany. I think it has something to do with the fact that I've looooooong hated feet in general, and my own feet in particular. By covering the nails in something light and peaceful it helped to negate some of their ickyness, at least on the surface and to casual observers passing by me when I'm wearing flip flops or sandals. But last summer I had a pedicure in Pasadena and opted for a lovely shade of blue. It inspired me. It somehow made my feet stand out as something other than my feet. Not anything beautiful or particularly likable even, but at least less repulse than usual. I'd tried a dark blue that I had with me about a month ago, but it was a bit too much. It needed a subtler touch, so I spent a considerable amount of time perusing the shiny glass bottles of vibrant colors, looking for just the right one. In the end, I did find a nice sparkly sort of turquoise-ish blue. The funniest bit is that, when I went to show it to Tammy this past weekend, she had bought the shade lighter that I had also been going back and forth between. Who'd a thunk?
The weather has been extra bad this week, temperatures only going up to the low teens (which would be like the lower 50's) so I haven't been back in a while. I've pretty much decided my next purchase will be some sort of cleansing mask. It's rather hard to decide on the best one with my language skills, but the desire to somehow do something good for my skin is prompting me to head back to that lovely store...
(Note: you really should check out the link. It'll take you directly to photos of the type of store in question and you can enjoy that brand new feeling too :)