Paper

There are a lot of little things that people buy that don't seem so essential on their own. I mostly have eschewed these things, but have come to appreciate more and more that while there may be a hundred household items that each can be dispensed with individually, you suffer from trying to do without the whole lot of it. I mean therefore to start buying these things and seeing whether they have the same outsized positive impact on my morale that the mere act of showering and dressing every day does.

Even the most inveterate bachelor values toilet paper (comical beer commercials in which they pass it up in favor of their drinking habit aside). I used to buy the cheapest, but now I go for your ritzy, soft two ply. That was the extent of the paper products I bought that weren't bound for the computer desk. I used the toilet paper for sneezing, and it really wore me down. When you're sick and blowing your nose every couple of minutes, it gets sore. I've put up with that for the last time.

Toilet paper doesn't do much for spills in the kitchen or around the apartment. What did I use in place of paper towels? I was not really clever enough to think of something that would work there. For the most catastrophic incidents, I used a regular towel and waited until the next time I did the laundry before I had it again. Other spills were mainly left to be cleaned up by time. I have often marveled at its powers to sweep away regrettable actions, though it struggles with anything other than water.

Today however, I have some real paper towels to go with the bathroom tissue and the facial tissue. I am gladdened by the prospect of these conveniences, but about as displeased by the thought of all the inconvenience I've put myself through over such a savings as a few dollars every few weeks. I guess that you can't look back like that. Life's hard enough without seeing in a clear sky the cloudy skies that there were before.