These birds have flown...

okay, bad beatles pun. But after a long weekend of fighting the creepy carpet beetles that have made a mockery of the wool items I hold dear in my closet, I think we can declare a small victory. The exterminator came on Saturday morning and as far as I know, sprayed the crap out of my apartment (I was hanging out all morning at that cute cafe 14U, which makes Busboys and Poets look like the poster child for conformity) and then I went to the Container Store to purchase all sorts of accoutrements to ward off future generations of critters.

A word about the Container Store -- quite the testament to consumerism. A store in which you buy things to put all your things in. Let's be fair: I consume with the best of them -- witness the fact that I have so many clothes, I didn't know I had a carpet beetle problem until they decided to show themselves to their oppressor, having reach a critical level of support with their constituents, i.e., my favorite suits and sweaters -- and even this store got my hackles up (and yes, let's save the comments about how my hackles are constantly at the ready, just waiting for the slimmest of excuses to rise). There is an entire section dedicated to wrapping paper at the Container Store. This may be a random sticking point about excess in my mind, especially considering I think the perfect weekend includes clubbing baby seals and wearing six different kinds of endangered species on my back, but wrapping paper really serves no purpose. No matter how great a job you've done wrapping that gift up (and to be fair, the Container Store had some pretty nifty concoctions), the wrapping MUST be destroyed, unless of course your gift is an empty, prettily-wrapped box. You know it's a gift. They know it's a gift. In a second, they're going to know what the gift is. Why add the extra layer of uncertainty?

So I wandered around the Container Store, thinking of all the things I have that need containing. I have some runaway greeting cards that simply refuse to stay put - the Container Store offers a neato Greeting Card Holder "for the cards you have gotten or the ones you will give!" I also hate the fact that my socks are in a basket and I have to spend at least 8 seconds rooting through to get to my favorite argyles -- why not purchase the Sock Organizer, which lets you line them up next to each other in a row? Two things: one, you must be kidding. Two, unless it comes with a little gnome whose job it is to line up my socks in the Sock Organizer, it ain't happening. Now, if only they had a Baby Seal Club holder in bamboo...

Oh yeah, I spent $115 at the frickin Container Store on plastic holders for my clothes, cedars, and highly toxic bug spray. Bastards 1, anti-consumerist hypocrites, 0.