Obsessions

I am obsessed with obsessions. That doesn't sound right but it feels right. A better way of saying it is 'I am easily obsessed with shiny objects'. Yeah, that sounds right. I am a magpie. I do bring home shiny things I find, but I also collect techniques and hobbies. My pockets are often repositories for crap I find on the ground. Amongst many things; a rusted bolt, foreign coin and someone's jettisoned shopping list. I find shopping lists fascinating. The lists are sort of like the last remaining pieces of someone's life...the few items to make the next 12 hours complete.
It's not like I go out looking for something to obsess over. I have always been a collector. My father is a collector and his father has his stuff. But they stuck with a narrow avenue of collecting. And I wouldn't call it an obsession for them. My grandfather was a metal worker who operated a lathe. His hobby was fishing. That was what I knew of his interests. My father got hooked onto electronics in the 1960s and he collected everything he could store. That and books. Zane Grey and non-fiction. Since he used to be a math and science teacher, he has an obsession with math and science. Investing books also filled his shelves. Growing up, I had a ball going through the stuff he would bring home. I imagined all the neat things you could do with electronic motors, monitors, flash units and such. He knew all kinds of fun things to do with chemicals. He could spend the afternoon working on a circuit that would light 3 bulbs in succession...nothing else but it was magic to me. Perhaps I am trying to create some of that magic for myself without the use of resistors and diodes. No, the electric bug didn't bite me like it did my dad.
Having a curiosity about many interest is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that I meet wonderful people and have a great time pursuing something that many folks can't even fathom. Such as how to juxtapose found object items into fused glass bowls using ceramic techniques and basket weaving materials. (oh the stuff that rolls through my mind as I drift off to sleep!) The downside to all of this is that sometimes I don't know if I am coming or going. And space. Not Star Treky space but paying 200 bucks a month kind of space. Space for all my stuff. My collection of shopping lists can be stored in my sock drawer but my magazines are in storage...well, most of them. So are most of my books. And my art paper. And my things! My things! I need a Tardis. I would take a Tardis with a busted motor. I just need somewhere to keep my stuff at hand. Well, a Tardis and my laptop. And my cameras. And more space.