ok so I did slip (entry 3)

Okay, I admit that I did slip over the weekend but, in my defense I blame the long weekend. I bought a bikini top that went with a bikini bottom that I had bought two weeks ago while on a shopping excursion with my aunt. I found the bikini top on Ebay and was not hesistant whatsoever in purchasing it because it completed the set! After I had bought it them I realized that I was the epitome of consumerism buying things that I did not need however, since I did buy it on ebay I'm not sure if it is new or not. I still feel guilty about going on Ebay and doing online shopping because all that did was tempt me even more. One thing I noticed about myself even more was that shopping is a HUGE part of my life especially when I'm bored. I caught myself shopping online five times already today alone and today is not even over yet! This is why I decided that in order to avoid tempting myself and buying something else I will focus all my attention on my papers and studying for my final. Hopefully by channeling my energy on something extremely time consuming I will not think about shopping or worse buy something. My addiction to shopping reminded me of Kawamura's article and I remembered in it she talked about how fashion is excess while, clothing is a necessity. This quote really made me think about the useless items that I buy on my weekly shopping rendezvous. During moments of my weakness I would usually come up with reasons to justify my purchases such as "Potato sacks are making a comeback this year..." sarcasm aside, I would come up with any reasons to make me feel guiltless about wasting money. I remember there was this one purchase that I made that I highly regretted till this day; it was a Sanrio handbag that for some reason appealed to me at the time and despite my denial of it now there was a small part of me that thought I could rock the whole Japanese cutesy look. Reminiscing about this reminds me of the article on Japanese street fashion that we read in class a few weeks about the variety of streetwear that Japanese teen would wear. Even though I was not aware that I was being affected by the influence of it at the time I realize now that I was. This was an eye opener to me and I think the next time I do shop I am going to think about the reasons why I buy certain things and where do these influences come from.