As M has stated many times before we are two of the most boring people you’ll ever meet.

We don’t drink, smoke, gamble, and probably swear just enough to break up the monotony. I will confess that I really like gummi bears, but aside from that, nothing major.

Or so I thought?

It all started innocently enough about ten years ago as a college senior while surfing online. No, not that although I’d be lying if I told you I never looked.

No, I’m talking about eBay or as I more intimately call it, “The World’s Biggest Garage Sale.” I started looking for baseball cards of my grandfather and haven’t really stopped since. Until I met M, I would scan for hours on end in search of anything and everything while buying a good deal of the following:

• Baseball, football, basketball and even hockey cards
• Matchbox cars
• Baseball jerseys and t-shirts
• Miniature plastic football helmets
• Pez dispensers
• Jazz cds
• Foosball table
• Trumpet

AND perhaps my favorite…a cowboy hat.

But once I met M, this all became, ummm…CRAP.

In fact right before our first date, she found me at my desk at work sealing an envelope filled with coins taped to a letter to pay for a basketball card. Little did she know.

Within short time M “suggested” I channel my resources in a more responsible fashion to which I agreed in principle, but have always had difficulty adhering to.

Basically I’ve been feeding her the following excuses for the past three years:

• “I’ll cut back.”
• “I’m only looking.”
• “I’ll give it up for Lent.”
• My Dad sent me this link.”
• Maybe I can look during X number of days per year?”
• I’m only buying stuff I really want.”

I even went as far to figure out how to use Yahoo! Japan’s auction site which is all in Japanese!

But last weekend I realized that I needed to take a break as I was spending hours looking for football cards instead enjoying this time with my wife or playing with my puppy. My priorities were clearly out of whack so I had M change my password to login.

So far so good as I’ve actually managed to channel my energy in more creative ways by writing a few entries.

Maybe some day I’ll be back, but only with a watchful eye over my shoulder. Because I’ll only end up buying another cowboy hat to replace the one that M may have “lost” in the move to Japan.