Bohemian Brand Loyalty

I have become one of those people who buys three boxes of Calgon, six bottles of contact lens solution and four extra toothbrushes at a time, who stocks the pantry with ten cans of white beans, and who has brand loyalty to a certain type of paper towel. I have become the kind of person who calls Target to inquire after a brand of kitty litter that the cat prefers and which I have not been able to find during two visits to two local stores.

I have become the kind of person who mends the winter coat buttons in late October, long before the first frost, and who starts shopping for staff Christmas gifts the moment Halloween is over (and sometimes before).

I have become the kind of person who compulsively recycles, and who spends several days during the summer cleaning and reorganizing closets.

So when you want to know why I wear fishnets (demurely, flesh-colored ones under tailored trousers), it's because I'm not quite ready to give up my fantasy of myself as being slightly bohemian. A middle-aged, middle-class, bohemian suburbanite who has brand loyalty to Calgon and Northern Cloud.