Dinosaurs and Ranting...

So I collect these silly plastic dinosaurs from the '80s, they are not very accurate to how we understand dinosaurs to have looked by today's standards, but they are very brightly colored (which I like in everything) and I just generally like dinosaurs and collecting and the hunt.

Anyway, when I was recently in Los Angeles and scouting thrift stores I came across the mother load, four HUGE (by huge I mean like 15" long and 6" tall so not that huge, but granted most of mine are pretty small) orange and green beauties at $8 for the lot. Woot! It had been a while since I had found any and for whatever reason this made me think about this ex-boyfriend of mine that would on occasion go to someplace like Target and buy me toy dinosaurs, which was pretty much misses the point and is the most frustrating thing ever. The point is not to just go buy something new, it is to hunt around for that perfect addition to your collection, whether it be at yard sales or thrift stores or even ebay. It is like buying someone that collects baseball cards a pack of football cards. At the time I was like, "does this person even know me?, sure they got the dinosaur part right, but the rest has nothing to do with my collection." I know he was trying to make a nice gesture, but wtf? How is one supposed to react to that?

Getting to my point now, so, it having just been "the holidays" and Valentines day coming up along with a slew of other pointless holidays just meant to make us buy $7 factory-made greeting cards (buy handmade!) for each other that are just going to get thrown out in a few days anyway and got me to thinking about the meaning of gift giving and that it really bums me out that we are doing it for all the wrong reasons. Holidays like Christmas seriously gross me out, everything has turned in to quantity not quality. Someone at some point decided that to make a perfect Christmas there has to be a huge pile of presents under the tree. I would a million times over prefer one simple gift that meant something to me than hundreds of dollars worth of crap that I will likely never use anyway. PLEASE! Enough with the toiletries! That in mind I really encourage you to buy things for loved ones that are meaningful, sure to some people crap from Target is meaningful, but for the rest of us don't forget places like Etsy or great gift guides or making it yourself or shopping at local boutiques, etc. Blah, blah, blah, end rant.