The Chronic Consumer

If you look at my entries for the past few months, you’ll see that I’ve purchased quite a few Missouri Tigers items. The reason for this is that I love wearing sports-related clothing, and am excited about being in grad school at Mizzou. I never went to a school with a big sports program before, so I want to show off my Tiger pride whenever I can. Mizzou happens to sell a wide range of branded items — everything from hats and jackets to home decor and dog supplies — so I’ve spent quite a bit of money on their products this year. One of my most recent purchases was this Tiger Head Tee.

This is a very cool basic t-shirt that features the Missouri tiger head logo and the words Missouri Tigers across the front. It’s got a kind of distressed look going on, making the shirt appear to be something that’s been in my collection for a long time, instead of something I just added a little while back. Plus, it’s made from 100% cotton, making it very soft and comfortable.

This is the third Missouri t-shirt I’ve bought in the past three months, and I love it! I’ll continue supporting my school in this way until I graduate — at which time I can start buying “alum” items!!

Now that the weather is turning cooler by the day, I’m looking forward to breaking out the winter gear that I purchased along with my fall semester books back in August. I needed some new gloves, so I decided on this Columbia Sportswear pair.

The gloves are black and are made of very soft fleece. They feature a Tiger head logo on the back, as well as the Columbia name and logo. In addition, the left glove has the word “Missouri” stitched into the index finger and the right glove has the word “Tigers” stitched into the index finger. There is also a patch of faux leather across the palm and thumb of each glove in order to improve your grip when you’re carrying books or shoveling snow or whatever. And finally, there’s a clip on one glove and a hook on the other so they can be attached together when you’re not wearing them.

I don’t know how warm these gloves are because it hasn’t been cold enough to wear them yet, but I’ve tried them on and love the way they fit. They’re very soft and comfortable, and though they’re not the kind of gloves to use in a snowball fight, I think they’ll be perfect for me. The only thing I don’t like about them so far is that they had HUGE tags sewn into them. There’s no way I could have been comfortable with those things poking at me, so I had to cut them off straightaway.

Actually, another thing I didn’t like about the gloves was the price. They set me back $25, which is quite a bit for fleece. Plus, I recently checked the store where I bought them from and saw that they’re now on sale for $18-something — which didn’t improve my mood at all. I hate when that happens!

I also bought this matching fleece headband, which is also made by Columbia. The headband is black and gold with the word “Mizzou” stitched at an angle across the front. I’m not much of a knit cap/beanie kind of person, so I’m hoping this headband will serve to keep my ears warm when I go out for my daily walk in the winter.

I know I’ll look like a total Mizzou rah-rah girl, but I don’t care. I’m excited to be part of this great institution and want to show off my affiliation!

I’m going back to school tomorrow, which is kind of a weird feeling since I’m in my mid-thirties and all my classmates are likely in their early twenties. Still, despite the fact that I put wrinkle cream on my face before bed every night while they reach for zit cream, I’m planning on enjoying my time as a graduate student.

I even bought this School of Education tee to keep me motivated while studying. I realize it’s not as prestigious as the Harvard Law sweatshirt that Ally McBeal wears during her downtime, but I still like it. It’s a Russell “NuBlend” shirt (58% polyester, 42% cotton) and is very soft and comfortable. It fits perfectly too, even after a couple of trips through the washer and dryer already.

I can already tell this is going to end up being one of my favorite shirts ever. I’m tempted to order another just to have a backup!

Since I didn’t go to a big school during my undergrad days, I feel strangely compelled to show off my colors now that I’m going to Missouri for graduate school. That’s why I ordered a bunch of apparel and accessories to coincide with the beginning of the new school year, including this Tiger head decal.

This is one of those static cling deals that are both easy to put up and take down. It’s a nice, big 4×9 oval shape, with the Missouri tiger head in the middle and the word “Mizzou” underneath. The oval contains black and gold swirls to further highlight the school’s colors. The decal goes on the inside of a window or windshield, thus protecting it from the weather and so forth.

At just $2.99, this Tiger Static Cling Decal was a great purchase. It’s already up in my car, and now everyone knows where my loyalties lie!

When I bought my textbooks for the upcoming semester (which begins in two and a half weeks), I also decided to stock up on college apparel so I could show my school colors during football season. After searching through the approximately 4396841 t-shirt choices, I settled on this “Property of Missouri Tigers” tee.

This shirt appealed to me for a number of reasons. First, I think it looks good. I like the old-school style lettering (especially the “Tigers” in script), as well as the way the screenprinted graphics look cracked and worn already. Plus, this is a football shirt, so it’s a great way to show off my allegiance this fall.

Another thing I like about this shirt is that it’s made from 100% preshrunk cotton. That means it’ll stay the same size no matter how many times I put it through the washer and dryer. I’ve already tested this out, and the shirt came through looking as good as new.

And finally, the shirt is just comfortable. Nothing beats a cotton t-shirt, and since I spend almost every day wearing either tees and shorts or tees and sweats (depending on the season), I’m sure this “Property of” shirt will become one of my favorites.

Go Tigers!

I have never been on a cruise before (riverboat gambling doesn’t count!), but have always dreamed of going on one. I think it would be amazing to travel across the ocean to an exotic, fun-filled destination — all while being treated like a queen on board the ship, of course.

My ideal cruise vacation would span at least one week, and would take me through the eastern Caribbean to places like the Bahamas, Half Moon Cay, and Grand Turk. While on board the ship, I would spend time shopping, playing blackjack, relaxing on the deck with a book, or treating myself to a massage at the spa. At the various ports of call, I would go sightseeing, snorkeling, and shopping, and just have a fabulous time all around!

I would love to take one of Carnival’s Caribbean cruises in the near future. I’ll be starting grad school soon, and know I’ll be too swamped with work to do anything fun, so if I could somehow manage to book a cruise in the next month and a half, I’d be set. Or, I could save up and give myself this dream cruise as a graduation present. Yes, that sounds like the right idea! Think I can make this happen??

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Well, at Mars/M&M, they’ve been doing something called Free Chocolate Friday for a couple weeks now. Every Friday, you can go to the Real Chocolate website, where you can register to receive a coupon for a free Mars/M&M product. These include Snickers, Twix, Dove, M&Ms, Milky Way, Three Musketeers, etc.

They’re giving away 250,000 coupons every Friday, and I think the coupons are only available at certain random times. I’m not sure about that, though. I just went to the site a few minutes ago, and was able to fill out the form for a coupon, so if you want one, go now!

Fortunately, there’s a limit of one coupon per email address per Friday, and four per household for the offer period, otherwise I’d need to start shopping for a good fat burner after consuming all this free chocolate!

Oh, and take a look at this “awesome” commercial for Free Chocolate Fridays starring the adorable Neil Patrick Harris:

I don’t really eat a lot of health food, but for the past few months I’ve been trying probiotic yogurt. Probiotic yogurt is different from regular yogurt in that it contains live bacteria that are supposed to be good for your body — specifically, for your digestive tract.

I’d also read that probiotic yogurt could be beneficial to those suffering from acne (though this claim just came from regular people, not medical professionals), so I really decided to try it for that reason. So I bought some Dannon Activia the next time I went to the store, and have been eating it ever since.

Probiotic yogurt doesn’t taste any different from regular yogurt, and to be honest, I haven’t noticed any additional benefits. In other words, I’m not any more regular (in terms of bowel movements) than before, nor do I have any less acne than before.

And yet, I keep buying the stuff. Why is that? I have no idea. I guess I do it just in case there really are benefits to be had somewhere down the line.

Would I recommend probiotic yogurt to others? Not really. As I said, if there are any benefits, they’re not the kind that you’re likely to notice, so it’s probably not worth spending the extra money on this stuff.