An Amazonian Exile

Dear Friends of UlloaSullivan.com

I write to you today in order to purge myself of the secret I have been keeping for some time and to ask for your understanding, supporting and (if necessary) help as I take the difficult first steps towards getting better.

I am, of course, talking about my addiction to shopping on Amazon.com.

The signs have been there for all to see for quite a while, of course. It's not like I deliberately tried to hide it. In fact, how could I when day after day little brown packages or padded envelopes would arrive - sometimes every day for the entire week - and be deposited outside the front door. On the days I am home I can quickly nip outside and grab the parcel before anyone notices. But on the days when I am traveling or in San Mateo, my illness is exposed when Michelle comes home and has to bring the packages in herself. If only they wouldn't insist on putting the smaller ones in the mailbox - at least then I would stand a chance of her getting home late and not checking outside the front door for a day or two, giving me a chance to come home and clear the porch of the evidence.

Oh, and then there's the liberal use of Amazon packaging to help in the wrapping of Xmas gifts and as make-shift sleeping quarters for Cornflake. I guess those were a give away too - not least because we like to chronicle the wrapping process as part of the Xmas photo album on Flickr.

I guess the fact that I am not too careful about concealing my addiction is a good thing.  After all, I could have easily arranged to have parcels delivered elsewhere so that those closest to me wouldn't know or taken advantage of the latest in technology and get my music via downloads only rather than physically on CDs (although my sound quality snobbery would never allow that for the long haul).

So, the conclusion that I have reached is that, in order to help break this spiral of extreme online consumerist that I find myself in, I am going Cold Turkey on making any online orders from them or any other eCommerce site at all during the month of February. I will make exceptions for birthday gifts for others but can't buy anything for myself.

Fortunately, I was able to place a couple of orders just before my self-imposed cut-off on Jan 31st and happily received a copy of the new The Script CD today, a HDMI adapter cable for the iPad earlier in the week and a nice new coffee maker from Illy is currently on it's way to Chez UlloaSullivan as I type. And, obviously, it would be cheating to order something before the end of the month knowing that it would be delivered on Mar 1st.

So, please be vigilant and check in with me now and again to see how I'm doing, offer your support and ask me to order something for you so that I can get my fix without actually buying something for myself. Would that still be considered cheating?