Outcomes I: Time

Had you asked me last month if I spent much time shopping, I would have confidently responded in the negative. However, my experience over the past few weeks has shown me otherwise.

Now that my shopping options are limited to resale shops, my shopping habits have changed dramatically. The element of predictable instant gratification has been eliminated. Purchasing one particular item may entail many stops, and finding the item at all is not guaranteed. While this style of shopping may have appealed to me in the leisure of my early twenties, in my early thirties with a walking ten-month-old in tow, it does not.

So, I generally opt not to shop at all. Whereas before I sometimes felt like I spent all of my daughter's waking moments running errands, we now spend expansive afternoons touring the plethora of city parks. Inclement weather sends us to the library or the local museum. The time we have to do these things feels vast.

It makes me wonder, how on earth was I spending so much time "running errands" in the first place? And what were all those errands that felt so compelling and necessary at the time?