I've got expensive taste (oh well); I guess I better save up.

I have a problem.

Admitting it is the first step, right?

I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't partake in illegal activities. But I confess I have one major vice. I am a shopaholic.

While I do also have a list of guilty pleasures that include many types of music and movies that are generally made for 12 year-olds, and I definitely admit to hating that fact that I am currently addicted to "Pretty Little Liars" on ABC Family, none of these things seem to take up as much of my time as shopping does.

Well, maybe it isn't really the shopping because I also have terrible buyers' remorse. You'd think the two things wouldn't go together, but I am proof that you can fully enjoy the act of shopping and also hate the idea of unloading cash on something you don't really need.

In recent years, I have come to hate shopping in stores. I think the simple ease of clicking through webpages has made shopping more enjoyable and highly more dangerous for me. Very often, I will go looking for a specific item and find nothing, only to return to my computer and my list of bookmarked shopping sites. Usually, I buy something completely different than what I was looking for. I have made a habit of going through current magazines and marking fashion ideas and next season's trends before I sit down at the computer and scour my favorite sites for something resembling the stuff I have picked out. I blame Lucky Magazine for making this process far too easy with those little stickers that fashion addicts can use to remember exactly where to find those new shoes.

I have always had a loving relationship with fashion. I was always the one that picked out things no one else would wear. Now, I was never breaking boundaries like this Lady



, but I was definitely buying things in ridiculous colors with prints that I would now call hideous. I did my best to recreate things I thought the magazines did correctly. When it came to buying dresses for special occasions, I never settled. If Britney wore it, I wanted it. It Gwen talked about it, I had to have it. Funny, that part hasn't changed... And the buyers' remorse seems to be non-existant when it comes to something that in any way includes the name Gwen Stefani, L.A.M.B., or Harajuku Lovers. The collection of bags I have amassed since the first "L.A.M.B. for Le Sportsac" line in the early 2000s is quite frightening. I do believe I have lost count.

With a love of shopping and fashion also comes the annoying prospect of putting on something that just doesn't work or wanting something that doesn't quite exist. Just today, one of my best friends and I took a little (discount) shopping trip. Now, I am all for a good bargain, but I just don't have the patience to shop through the racks. If I see it without searching, it's perfect. Both of us walked in to the first store with ideas of clothing we had created in our heads. Her cardigan and my casual dresses just didn't exist. For many years I have maintained the idea that no matter your shape or size, there are clothes to make a person look good. I truly believe that there is something for everyone to wear and be comfortable and happy with the way he/she looks... but it definitely sucks when the dress you've had your eye on or the trendiest of jeggings (I despise them) just doesn't fit. More often than not, this is the part of shopping I could do without. I've become a fan of buying things without trying them on in the store (sorry, Stacy & Clinton of "What Not to Wear") and an even bigger fan of online shopping. There is much less to worry about when you're staring that the mirror in your own bedroom (especially if you're shopping at Loehmans in the open dressing room where the creepy lady is supposedly making sure you're not stealing anything... She was especially creepy today).

I honestly have no idea where this entry is going or even what my point was. Ha! What I can tell you is this... Right now, I'm going to online shop because I have nothing else to do, and it's just that easy.

"Style is style. Fashion is fashion. Girl, you got style."
(Ignore the very similar "Papa Don't Preach" opening.)