Readers Anonymous

Hi, my name is Sarah, and I'm a magazine addict.

So in cleaning out the living room today (I KNOW, I've actually been working on it!), I discovered that there were even more magazines hiding than what I knew about.

When we packed up the old house to move, my mother realized that I wouldn't finish on time. She knows me much too well. My mom came and packed the main floor of our old house. There was no sorting, no purging, just into boxes. If we didn't know where something should go, we put it in the living room; and there it has sat for the past year. So now goes the difficult work of actually doing the purging that should have happened before things went into boxes.

I have found old phone books, stamps that will need extra postage to be useful, calendars from 3 or more years ago and the like. I have also found out how many magazines I actually have.

I've always enjoyed magazines. I started with a subscription to Sesame Street Magazine every year from my aunt, graduating to the Electric Company, and National Geographic's World. My parents gave me a subscription to Seventeen, and I bought other magazines for years from Vogue to Elle to Style at Home. Early on, I think I just liked getting mail. Now, I appreciate that I might be able to finish an article in one sitting, seeing as I have so little time to read.

I have just decided once again to let my subscriptions to the 3 magazines I'm currently getting lapse. I'm just not getting through everything and can't understand why I'm putting out good money that is being wasted in things I don't read and merely pass on to my friend's husband's physio clinic. I have more than enough Everyday Food issues to keep me entertained, and Real Simple always makes me feel inferior. The only one I may miss is the Educational Leadership magazine I'm getting from ASCD.

I did discover, however, a boon while I was cleaning today: 5 years worth of Cooking Light issues in a box, along with a list of everything I've made from the issues, and a bag containing 2 years worth of Canadian Living, obviously from my mother.

What's astonishing is that we moved a box of 55-60 magazines. That's not a little bit sad too. What else is sad is my excitement over all of these magazines. I suddenly have more reading material! More recipes! More of everything I really don't have time for!

In good news, I have found approximately half of the living room floor, and I was having way too much fun going through my CDs today, deciding what to keep. My iPod has really made a good portion of my CD collection obsolete.