Dont Mince Words

There are certain addictions we find ways to overcome. Diabetics avoid bakeries. Alcoholics bypass liquor stores. I have avoided eBay for the longest time mainly because I don’t want to be a junk shopoholic. I’ve admired the company for years for giving common consumers the confidence they needed to make purchases on the Internet. But I have not bought a thing. Not until I realized I needed a lunch box.

I was shoving my Target plastic “lunch” bag in our over-crowded office refrigerator when a co-worker with a pink unicorn lunch box followed me. That’s when I realized I needed a lunch box that was easy to distinguish.

What pops into my mind? I know those of you that know me figure SpongeBob, Simpsons, or Hello Kitty. No, my mind went somewhere else – back into a time machine.

Back to 1971. I decided I needed to get the Partridge Family lunch box I never got the first time around. At 9 a.m., I was on eBay bidding in an auction that was ending in 45 minutes. I had heard about these last minute bidding wars. All I knew was, it was payday and I was going to get my damn lunch box.

An hour and $52 later I won the lunch box (with Thermos!) and I received an email from eBay congratulating me on my first purchase and inviting me to “find more great items.” Coming down off my shopping high from the world’s biggest yard sale I realized I had to wait for shipping. There was no immediate gratification like I get at a Nordstrom’s shoe sale. That’s why I’ve actually avoided eBay.

Today, 13 days later, I’m the proud owner of an original Partridge Family lunch box. Its arrival was anticlimactic and less of a high than winning a bidding war. Now I’m washed in stress trying to figure out what to pack for lunch tomorrow. I don’t have any fruit roll-ups, Pop Rocks, Spaghetti-O’s, or the fixings for a peanut butter banana sandwich.