Guilty Pleasures

My favorite thing in the world is beautiful sheets. (Okay, make that 2nd favorite but I'm not getting into that now.)

There is nothing like brand new sheets that have that wonderful "been washed two hundred times" feel when you touch them! The softness, the sheen, the comfort, the sensual pleasure, I could go on and on about my love for these luxury cotton sheets.

I have spent a lot of money on sheets over the years. I cannot stand to sleep in a bed on anything except 100% white cotton sheets with a very high thread count. In fact, I've been known to pack sheets and a pillow case when I travel if I'm unsure of the hotel.

I have a fetish for luxury sheets, and today I can afford them. But not being able to afford luxury sheets in the past didn't stop me from buying them. From the time I was about 25, I have pretty much refused to sleep on anything else.

When I was a child, I had no idea that there were regular sheets and luxurious sheets that actually whispered against your skin and made wearing pajamas feel like a mortal sin. I grew up sleeping on regular sheets and lived with them for many years before discovering there was a world of difference between the two.

I was getting to the end of my first full year as a recently divorced woman, and I got a surprise magical gift of a credit card from Macy's Department Store. It came in the mail about a month before Christmas and I had never been so thrilled in my life to open an envelope!

I had experienced a year of financial hardship far beyond what I had expected, and here came this wonderful plastic card that I could only view as a gift from the gods!

I decided to go purchase a few necessities and Christmas gifts for my children, and some "little thing" for myself. I crossed into Macy's with a feeling of reverence! I quickly found shoes, socks, clothing and toys for my kids and then wandered through the shoe department but tuned out the siren call of gorgeous new shoes for me because I realized I was on a quest for something different.

I found the linens department and began to run my hands over the finest sheets I had ever felt in my life. These were sheets for royalty. No tacky satin sheets for me to slide off the bed; no poly-mix sheets for me to get too hot on. I wanted fine white cotton sheets.

I purchased four sets of sheets. They were the most luxurious things I had ever owned, (or maybe the word is "charged" not "owned" since until you pay for them, I gather the repo man could come and take them back).

Once home, I put a set on my bed and wallowed for a while. My children joined me in joyous wallowing which we did while listening to the Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers" album playing over and over on the turntable. It was a happy afternoon.

Far less joyful was the the arrival of the credit card bill at the end of the month which showed that I had maxed out my Macy's card in that one day. A painful lesson was learned when I had difficulty paying that bill.

But a more lasting lesson was also learned. Life is short. Buy great sheets!