So I'm starting anew.

I've never been one for blogging, I guess... I've always really wanted to, but whenever I read my "work", I feel like it's

a. pretentious
b. inappropriate
c. boring
d. stupid

So we'll see how this new run goes. I guess. I'm tired of writing these introductions! Haha. Now to the regularly scheduled programming...

The Container Store.

Have you ever been to the Container Store? It's possibly the most fascinating thing ON THE PLANET. It's not a small store, either. This mother is COSTCO-SIZED. Or maybe half of a Costco. Or a third. I don't know.
Originally, however, I wasn't terribly interested in going in, seeing as I believed it to be walls upon walls of Tupperware of various sizes, and I didn't think my ADD would appreciate me very much if I went in and spent any amount of time staring at WALLS. UPON WALLS. OF TUPPERWARE.

(calm down joey, don't scare the bloggers)

But, like most of my first impressions (delusions?) of places, I was wrong.

The Container Store, though named with the creative ingenuity of a Tic Tac (no, wait, Tic Tacs are too creative for such belittlement), was LE AWESOME.

(tell me more!)

Not only do they have amazing bins and things you can use for home/office/man cave storage (or whatever your heart happens to fancy), but they have SO. MUCH. MORE. OMG.

For starters, they carry the best little desk organizers, trash cans (mine has flowers adorning it, ahh, yes, yay, omg, /spasm) and other various instruments of work-related joy and happiness. (Sounds like an oxymoron, I know, it's really not, promise!)

But that's just the start.

The front of the store? The most incredible little... um... doohickeys. I actually don't know what to call them. There's a variety of, well, doohickeys in the front, including but not limited to:

1. key toppers shaped like cookies and sock monkeys...
2. Mini iPod speakers made to look like legos (LEGOS. LEGOS I SAY. YAY. :D)...
3. Bruise reducers fashioned in the style of those Mr. Men/Little Miss characters...

Um, yes? YES YES YES?

4. Magnetic flashlights that all you have to do is detach the magnet from the base and a super powerful brilliant beam is immediately issued from the casing (that, by the way, is patterned and therefore AWESOME)...
5. Rubber travel coffee mug handles that are molded into flowers and peace signs and other hippie symbols (which are all right by me, yep, okay) so that your boringly shiny Starbucks tumbler can be SPIFFY and NIFTY and other such adjectives...

And a whole bunch of other things I can't remember.

And then there's the gift box aisle.
Did you know there are a ton of gift wrapping/boxing options beyond the traditional paper/box/gift bag?
(If you answered no, then yeah, me neither.)

...

(If you answered yes... well aren't you just a smarty pants. Boo, go away.)

Chinese take-out boxes in different styles and colors, mini gift bags, other wrapping options that I can't even comprehend (I probably could if I tried hard enough, but who wants to try hard and think when they're shopping? Other than in the Brookstone store. That store is amazing in its purest form. Have you ever been in there? It's pretty much aweso... I digress, sorry). But the point is, in this store? There's enough color stimulation to last a lifetime. Aka, very useful for someone like me. ADD, remember?

...But the most fabulous item? One word.

BUBBLEOPE.

It's an envelope. Made with bubble wrap. And the outside comes in shiny colors. I kinda fell in love.
And of course, they have gigantic rolls of bubble wrap, but, as entertaining as that is, it's nothing compared to the bubbleope.
I have made it my life's mission to, from now on, only use bubbleopes to give gifts to my friends. It's really the gift that keeps on giving... BUT IT'S SHINY. YES.


I'm obviously a joy to shop with, what are you talking about?