Mailman Mike, I'm Sorry

It first started with the holiday catalogs. As hundreds of catalogs were delivered to our door, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Mike, our poor mailman. I pictured him trudging to our door, his back breaking from the heaviness of the load, thankful for the sight of our mailbox. He got about a two-week reprieve after the holidays. Now that's over. Now it's magazine time.

It all started when I had some airline miles for 2 different airlines that were about to expire. I didn't have enough on either of them to get a free ticket, so I looked for other ways to cash them in. The first airline, which I won't name, didn't offer anything that I was interested in. Actually, they really didn't offer anything at all. I was able to donate the miles to charity which was the feel-good choice. The other airline, which I also won't name, really didn't offer much more, but they did offer magazine subscriptions. I was in.

I have to admit, I have a bit of an obsession with magazines. Stein will agree. I think I like magazines for the shiny pages, the colorful pictures, and the short articles. When I traveled, reading a magazine on the plane ride home was always my reward for a grueling trip. While I was in school, I didn't have time to read magazines. I was busy reading textbooks. It was the same while I was student teaching, only then I was reading teacher's manuals. Now I have time to read magazines. And now I have magazines to read. Maybe too many to read.

You see, there's this anxiety I get when I don't read a magazine by the end of the month, and then the next month's issue comes along. This sentiment is shared by my sister Mickey. We sometimes just bag up our old, unread magazines and give them away to the other person, just so we can reduce the anxiety. I finally had to remind her and myself that it doesn't matter if they're read or not, the magazine police won't be standing at the recycle bin ready to write a ticket for anything unread. ("Tell me what the recipe was on page 115 in Real Simple last month!" would be something that the police officer would say to test me.)

So now, in addition to Real Simple, Better Homes and Gardens, Golf Digest, and Runner's World, we also get Self, Domino, Smithsonian, and Best Life. I am probably most excited about Smithsonian, because I have always liked it but never wanted to pay the hefty subscription price. The others are just fluff. Perfect for those times when I want to read something, but don't have the attention span for a book.