#38 – Buying Something REALLY Expensive (That You Want)

I put the qualifier in there because buying new tires isn’t exactly fun.

Also, before we get started here, a bit of a programming note: you may have noticed that we’re finally going in numerical order. That’s because the first 200+ feelings are done and we’re now down to, essentially, the remaining top 40. From here on out, we’ll be plugging in the holes in the list until we get to number one.

OK, so here’s the story for this one:

When I was younger, all I wanted for Hannukah/Christmas/my birthday this one year was an Antoine Walker authentic jersey. For those of you not in the know, here’s a few basic facts about that previous statement:

1. Growing up, we celebrated both as my mom and dad’s sides of the family were Jewish and Catholic respectively.
2. Antoine Walker was a player for the Boston Celtics.
3. I am not a fan of the Boston Celtics.
4. Antoine Walker shot an inordinate amount of three pointers and often did eccentric shimmy-like dances on the court after making some of those shots.
5. He was a wildly inefficient player and there is no real reason why I should’ve ever been a fan of his, on any level.
6. Authentic jerseys, as opposed to the replicas or swingmans, cost about $150-200.

My parents outright refused to buy me this jersey. There literally was no discussion about it. For the longest time, I hoped against all odds that they were playing possum and that one of those wrapped boxes would actually contain an Antoine Walker jersey.

Their reason was that it was simply too much money to spend on one item, specifically a player’s jersey. In retrospect, they were right to some degree–no 11-year old needs a $150 jersey he’ll wear, max, 7 times. It was completely out of whack. But of course, I didn’t understand that. I tried to reason with them, saying they didn’t need to get me anything else. They weren’t having it.

I mention all this because growing up in this household, I was sort of indoctrinated not to be buying frivolous shit for myself that was unnecessarily expensive. I should note here, the total amount of money my parents would spend on gifts for me was far greater than $150… it wasn’t the total they objected to, but rather the amount for the individual item.

Now, as a semi-adult with semi-adult money and semi-discretional spending powers, I sometimes find myself in the rare but fun area of getting to buy myself something I really want that’s pretty expensive.

Of course, this doesn’t happen often because I generally tend to like plain clothes, plain shit and normal food. However, when I get around to buying a new computer to replace my current one (it’s still soldiering on, basically rock solid since 2009), I know I’ll get that feeling again.

First it starts out with a bit of dread… the nerves of childhood kicking in that I’m spending over a thousand dollars on something. Quickly though, it’s replaced by that feeling of shiny newness that washes over you when you take the thing home.

Like so many feelings from here on out, it’s only great because it’s rare. I suppose the richer you become and more accustomed to buying expensive shit, the less fun and more mundane it becomes.

Seeing as how that future likely isn’t mine, I’ll continue to enjoy it when I get it.

Polar Opposite of this Feeling?: Seeing your credit card statement the next month.