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Happy New Year! - I Made It!

Happy 2021!  May it be a much needed improvement over the year we've just completed - felt a bit like the longest decade all packed into 365 days, didn't it?  Traditionally, at the end of the year, there's a natural inclination to look back over the past year, failures and accomplishments, peaks and valleys, and then see what can be learned in moving forward.  However, most of us have been locked up so long that further introspection just feels like more unnecessary self-flagellation.   That said, I unknowingly decided that the year 2020 would be my first attempt at a Depth Year, and I did make it through all 12 months!  In my very first post, I defined my Depth Year as:   " I am going to attempt to take a whole year where I will not acquire any new possessions (that includes used/new-to-me) that I don't need.  Instead of accumulating more physical items, or using "shopping" as an activity (I do love thrift shopping in particular), I will instead ...
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End of 11th Month

 11 months down and only one more month to go!  I've even made it past the temptations of Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales!  More surprising to me, is that I don't have a list of items I'm waiting to buy on January 1st.  I had thought that by now I would have been delaying so many purchases for so long that I'd be antsy to "spend-spend-spend!"  But instead I'm feeling rather chill about it.  I think it's definitely adjusted my overall attitude about using consumerism as a coping device for anxiety and depression.   I did make a new purchase this month, that I had been waffling over for a few weeks now.  My electric kettle that I use to make my tea several times a day had sprung a leak.  Every time I depressed the "ON" tab, a small amount of water would leak out.  Also, I was starting to find increasingly larger puddles on the counter around it overnight.  I finally decided that this was a good enough reason to get a new kettle...
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End of 10th Month

 I think this was my first month where I had a clear and inexcusable slip.  My neighbors were having a yard sale and I picked up an aluminum mixing bowl (did need, have needed for a couple of years) for $2, and then also got a feather quill pen and ink bottle (unopened) for $2 - which was totally in no way needed.  I also bought a book.  Well, I bought two books - but one is a gift for a family member, and the other one the S/O technically paid for, but it still counts because he was trying to bend the rules for me because it was a Middle Earth encyclopedia found at an old bookshop for $5.  So, even though he paid for it, I'm still counting it as a slip.   On the other hand, I have successfully resisted all the DSW coupons I've been getting, even though my only pair of comfy brown shoes for walking (not boots) are getting ratty.  But, they still work, they're not falling apart yet, so maybe they'll make it through this brief fall season and into 2...
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End of 9th Month - Happy Birthday Me!

 Wow, so I caved on a couple of things this month.  I had debated for a while how I was going to handle my birthday and if I was going to allow myself to "treat myself" to something.  The decision got taken out of my hands a little bit.  My cell phone has been slowly dying, and I was hoping it might last until the end of the year.  I already started my depth year with a new computer for working from home (old system being about 10 years old), and what a depth year with both a new computer and a new phone!  But a cracked screen wasn't the only issue, for some unknown reason, it started kicking me off wifi every 10-15 minutes, and the only way to reconnect to any wifi was to do a hard reboot.  A couple of weeks of that, and I was ready to justify a brand new smart phone.  We are definitely calling that a necessity!  The other big lapse was a mattress topper.  I have been debating whether or not I should buy a new mattress for at least a co...
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End of 8th Month

 As August draws to an end, I've started to have some growing wavering.  Mostly because my birthday is this week.  I'm debating whether I should be allowed a birthday-break from the Depth Year, and if so, how to control it so it doesn't just start a downward spiral from here through the end of the year.   There are things that I have not bought that I have not missed.  There are things that I've not bought, and I'm like waiting down the clock, and I'm probably going to buy them on January 1st.  I didn't read anything when researching Depth Years about what that might mean.  If I've been drooling over an unnecessary item for 6+ months, am I missing the point if I buy it when my "year is up?" I understood this to be an exercise in reducing commercial intake, to appreciate what you already have and not constantly shop and buy unnecessary items to try and use it as some kind of psychological crutch. So what does it mean if I go on a shopping spree ...
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End of 7th Month

I think things are begin to wear on me a bit more now.  It might be the prolonged quarantining is also wearing me at the edges and making everything a little bit harder.  I started looking online for sleep shorts or yoga shorts.  So far, I have been deterred from buying anything because it seems my options are to either spend a ridiculous amount of money for something that, pre-COVID I could buy in a thrift store for under $5, or comb endlessly through completely unrelated listings on ebay.   (For the record, I do not recommend you type the phrase "silk boxer shorts" into the ebay search engine.  None of the things I saw, many of which I would consider horrifying and traumatizing, were either silk, or boxer shorts, or shorts at all.  I had a similar problem typing in simply "yoga shorts," and boggled at who were these listings exactly marketing to?  Certainly not women looking to do yoga, I am sure of that.  Also, to continue along this rathe...
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Halfway Through - Depth Year in the Time of COVID-19

So far I've made it 6 months doing my Depth Year.  4 of those months were under lockdown due to COVID here in NYC.  The city is slowly starting to open up, but thankfully my job is in no rush to risk its employees.  (It is a factor that we share a floor with a vaccine research NGO that has shifted their focus to working on a vaccine for COVID, and our leaders are basically agreeing to follow and go along with whatever their experts say.  Their experts are saying not before September, at best.)  So, folks in the City may be rushing to their favorite bars and restaurants on the first day of Phase 2 like it's all better now, but I will be continuing to sit my happy little butt at home and watch and wait.  I will listen to the medical research community over politicians, thanks.  I know it's a great privilege to be in such a situation, but I don't feel like throwing it away by being reckless.   That said, I do think after 6 months, and summer now...
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