Voting for Art Supplies

January 17th, 2019

 Week 3: The 2019 Voting with My Dollar Project

…17 days clean of Amazon Prime

Weaning myself off my Amazon Prime addiction has had its rough moments. It’s not simply a matter of buying things somewhere else. I live in a very small town — actually, I live in the middle of nowhere, a 20-minute drive from the nearest very small town. Between my full-time freelance work and my job as a mom of tiny twins, I don’t have a lot of time and space to run errands.

Last week, I had a list of craft and party supplies I needed to get: kid scissors, tempera paints, blank greeting cards, etc. There is a non-chain art supply store in town, and it’s actually pretty great — if you’re a grown-up who can truly appreciate the quality of Strathmore watercolor paper, for instance. But the selection of cheap kids’ craft stuff is nominal. When I finally made it in there, the only thing I checked off my list was “tiny bottle of seaweed-based glue.”

I was so tempted to revert to my Amazon ways.

I thought of that rush of accomplishment I get when I press BUY NOW WITH 1-CLICK and check the task off my list. All I have to do is wait for the thing I ordered to show up in the mailbox, and shove down my feelings of guilt when I dispose of the egregious packaging.

Instead, I remembered that we were heading to Keene this past weekend for a birthday party, and would be driving right by the only Target within reasonable driving distance. I hadn’t been to Target in about 18 months. I find the experience of Target to be overwhelming and a bit depressing, and I usually end up with some weird kind of motion sickness by the time I leave. I think it’s the combination of the dizzying amount of monochrome red, the fluorescent lights, and the far-off signage I cannot read without my driving glasses on.

Target is an enormous box store, and half the stuff on their shelves is made by impoverished children in Asian countries and shipped halfway around the world, using abundant fossil fuels. But is it slightly better than Amazon?

Let me put it this way. According to the NRA, it’s much, much worse — so to me, that’s a YES.

I’ve been getting a lot of my news from a Google Alert I set up on “companies that support the NRA,” and I am learning so much — mostly from pro-gun websites. For instance, on this one, I learned that God-fearin, Merika-lovin gun lovers should avoid Target because of its gun ban. And on this one, I learned that the State of New York has just announced a boycott of companies that support the NRA!

So, I’m feeling warm and fuzzy about Cuomo right now, and I also feel pretty good about spending $220 at Target in about 20 minutes:

Screen Shot 2019-01-17 at 8.50.23 AM

This project is ongoing and of course, highly subjective. I love information, so if I got something wrong, or you know something I don’t, please let me know!

What I’m eating:

I am always on the fence about chia seeds, but I did make this Healthyish recipe for Hazelnut Granola and Chia Pudding bowls and it’s been my new easy breakfast thing for the days I don’t have the time or the wherewithal for eggs. I don’t particularly like rooibos tea, so I substituted straight up Dutch cocoa. Yum. Naturally, my kids won’t touch it.

What I’m reading:

This Shouts & Murmurs piece in the New Yorker is highly entertaining. What if Carter had acted like Trump?

What I’m watching:

Nothing! The only thing I’ve watched this whole last week is the trailer for Vice about 15 times because somehow, even fat and playing Dick Cheney, Christian Bale just really does it for me. Will I go to the actual movie? I wish.

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One Response to “Voting for Art Supplies”

  1. [...] incidentally, is that there really isn’t anything you can’t get somewhere else — even if you have to go to Target. But you may have to practice a fair amount of patience to get the thing. No more instant [...]

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