Stateside-“Provisioning” or Consumer Culture Binge

Me at my first Starbucks in 6 months! Don't get me wrong-I’m not a Corporate Coffee lover, but after such a long hiatus with only the occasional homemade latte or Koko Samoa Moka from the local version of Starbucks I had no problem thoroughly enjoying a bagel and an espresso, especially after a five hour flight in the middle of the night.






Here’s a picture of me about ten hours (with a five hour layover in Honolulu and a five hour flight to Portland) enjoying my first microbrew in six months (excepting Markus’ very own homebrew). Oh, man was that beer great. It was the first of many, many, many more beers to come on my trip home. I think I came home from Trader Joes with three six packs at one point-apparently I was still in the island frame of mind (they may sell out and we won't see beer in the stores until the next ship comes in!)









After landing I began my nonstop shopping spree that scared my hosts to the marrow. Old Navy, Target, Fred Meyer, Nordstrom, Dollar Store shopping bags stacked high around the house. They couldn’t imagine how I would get all of this home.

No problemo. Three forty pound packages made their way home without me-courtesy the USPS. Two fifty pound checked bags, a carry-on and a backpack accompanied me on the plane. After six months I knew what I needed to bring home with me and I didn’t leave the mainland without much. I’ve decided to call this credit card maxing, shopping extravaganza, “Provisioning” making it sound sensible and necessary.

My island bound friends accept this process without question. Markus, despite slightly raised eyebrows, thought it was Xmas once again, and wildly approved of most of my purchases (interestingly more enthusiastic about the items for himself than for myself). My friends back home thought I was bonkers.



I must admit that I did find the large number of shoes and flip flops purchased as a more than over the top-those end of summer sales got me. At last count, I came home with ten new pairs of shoes. And a few for Markus on top of that.





What else does someone frantically purchase on a trip to the mainland? Sunscreen, bug spray, toiletries, swimming suits, t-shirts, snacks (oh, Trader Joes how I’ve missed you . . .), gifts (many), weird stuff like Vanilla Extract (there is no pure vanilla on this island!), Dry-Z-Air,
Oregon Chai (special request from on island friends), art supplies (it gets boring here sometimes!), wedding magazines (yes, I’ve succumbed),




a covered cat box (yes, can you believe it-this darn “outside” cat won’t go outside! I thought that was the main benefit of an outside cat! And can you believe I brought a cat box home with me? That's how much I hate looking at a cat box), a banana hook that when I opened the box didn’t have the supposedly included hook (what the !!!!), every pre-made Indian Restaurant-in-a-Box food stuff I could lay my hands on, my new ipod Shuffle (yeah!), a scale (can you think of a more depressing item to bring home? Especially after a food and beer binge?) and many more things I can no longer remember. After six months these are the sorts of things that become important to lug 5,000 miles to a tiny island in the middle of the South Pacific. Robert Louis Stevenson would have understood.