My latest obsession is to get my hands on one of these beautiful Dale of Norway sweaters. However they are slightly out of my price range. It's shocking when you are in a store, see something you like, such as a Dale of Norway sweater, for example, and then turn over a price tag that reads "$268". Of course, I'm not going to pay that kind of cash for a pullover no matter how nice it is. I don't care if they use Scandinavian wool hand dyed by maidens with long braided blond hair and ice blue eyes.

I do want one though. It signals to me something frightening which is that every last bit of materialism that I thought had leeched out of my body during my year in the Peace Corps has come back with a raging vengeance.