I decided to pop into my favorite little gift shop today, Le Village Marche, in Shirlington. I was out of diffuser oil and in search of a fresh, new scent. This was the third time I had been in since the pandemic. The two previous times I had visualized what I needed and where it was located before entering so as to make it as quick as possible.
Not today. Being fully vaccinated, I browsed at my leisure, smelling numerous candles, meandering through hanging aprons with brightly colored flowers, lemons, and French scenes. I flipped through dainty little handbags and linen tea towels.
I was about to grab the diffuser oil I had selected and head to the checkout counter when I spied a beaded, glossy white vase with a spray of elegant purple-blue berries. They were fake but every bit as pretty as the real thing. This would look perfect on my dining room table, and it would even match the painting of a rainy street in Paris my mom had recently passed on to me.
I picked up the vase: $40. I could live with that. I carefully lifted out one of the eight little bunches of berries: $12. Yes, $12 apiece, and it would take all eight of them to make it look right. Nope. I’m not spending nearly $150 on a vase and some fake berries. At the very least, I need to obsess about it for a while. What a wonderful thing to obsess about; this time last year I was fixated on wiping down my groceries with a Clorox wipe. This is so much better.
My Corner of the Village 