How the idea of an emotional enema can turn into YouTubing:

I woke up today and read She's Come Undone for two hours; it's one of my favorite books, and I have spent much time over my winter break re-reading it for the millionth time. I'm not a giant fan of fiction, but I relate to the main character so much that I find myself reading her story as my own, crying when she cries and learning as she learns, no matter the fact that I know exactly what's going to happen on the next page. Unfortunately, reading this book first thing in the morning is apparently not a good idea for me, as it can set the tone for the rest of my day as one of despair and longing.

After getting out of bed, feeling depressed and empty, I looked around my newly rearranged apartment at all of my stuff (which there is A LOT of) and noticed how many items have been made for me, or presented to me, by others. From what I hear, my tastes are both distinct and affordable, making it easy for my loved ones to randomly pick up little gifts for me. The only con to this? Finding remnants of past relationships, either extinguished or smothered, all around me, on a daily basis. This morning, I had an idea that I would throw away all of these things, or, at the very least, pack them up and hide them away in a closet; give myself a clean aesthetic slate, one free of hurtful memories and long-lost inside jokes - an emotional enema, if you will. People do it all the time in movies... destroy boxes full of ex-boyfriends, leaving themselves feeling liberated, the dead weight of decayed intimacy removed from their shoulders.

But I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Instead of wallowing in my self-directed disappointment, I did a little Googling to cheer myself up. Follow the link below and you will see exactly how I got here, three and a half hours later, feeling so much less guilty about my heavy accumulation of outwardly meaningless, yet inwardly invaluable, material possessions.

Let me Google that for you...

I'd like to specifically point out a great YouTube video I watched, featuring psychologist and author Sam Gosling talking about the theories behind his book Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You. The video is an hour long, and worth every minute of your time it will occupy.

Enjoy. In the meantime, I'm off to do some actual, rather than emotional, cleaning. Chrissy and Liam are coming over tonight to drink a couple of brewskis, and my apartment is a mess. Happy snooping...