everything should be cute

I feel a bit guilty for having this kind of interest in material possessions. There are important things for me to do in this world; i shouldn't care at all what my pencil sharpener looks like, as long as it sharpens pencils.

But still I think... if i'm going to own a pencil sharpener, why shouldn't it be somehow delightful?

My pencil sharpener is not delightful. I can't even tell you what color it is. Actually I'm not really sure where it is! So i have not always felt this way about pencil sharpeners being delightful.

Some credit has to go to Hello Kitty. When I realized that anything I could ever want might also be available in pink and with Kitty on it, i began to wonder why i would ever choose a non-Kitty pencil sharpener (toaster, hairdryer, license plate frame, etc).

(And yet I don't want Kitty on everything... mostly because I just don't want Kitty on EVERYTHING.)

Eventually, cell phones became popular and I decided to get one. I had just returned to the U.S. after a semester abroad. Mobile phones were already widely used in the country where I'd been living; you could easily get one in pale pink, baby blue, or various other stylish colors. But everything I found at my local American cell phone shop was black and very businesslike. I was unhappy with this. For some reason I even complained about the lack of cuteness to the salesman at the Sprint store. I think he didn't understand. I went home with a navy blue one that could accommodate the phone charms i'd acquired in my travels. Eventually i painted it pink using nail polish.

And that's about the time my devotion to living a cute life began to develop. They say study abroad changes your life -- apparently that's how it changed mine. (I had been hoping it would help me decide on a major.)

Years later there is still so much of my life that is just sitting there not being at all stylish -- the aforementioned pencil sharpener, for example. No more! And so i hereby form THE COOKIES CLUB. Let's think about how to have a cute life!