Crackpipe?!

The conversation went something like this:

Me: I couldn't really afford it, but I bought a crockpot this weekend, which, as far as I'm concerned, has already paid for itself. (I had just made a yummy chicken stew that saved me some money and saved my intestines from another trip to Uncle Greasepots)

Brad: (looking at my quizically) You bought a crackpipe?!

I corrected him, but my straight-laced, Christian, Texan, good-old boy roommate Brad was serious. He thinks I'm a little weird which makes sense because he is one of the most 'normal' people I know, and there is, of course, the fact that I *am* a little weird. He probably wouldn't put it past me to come home with a crackpipe. Although interestingly enough he seemed to think that I would find an expensive, budget-breaking crackpipe, perhaps made of Austrian crystal. We had a good laugh, but he didn't laugh easily as if to say "Ha ha. Crackpipe, I'm so silly!" It was more of a "Oh lord, it's only a matter of time before she *does* bring home a crackpipe," kind of laugh.

I think this belief of his is tied to my excitement over a gift brought to our apartment by our friend Brian. He and his girlfriend, Susan, are expert garbage sifters and found what seemed to Brian and me like a treasure: two discarded dressforms to decorate any way we wished. Susan and Kristy were non-plussed and enjoyed ridiculing our glee. Brad, of course, looked on in disbelief, smiling gently in a way that only barely covered his befuddled amazement that one might actually want to include a dressform in one's decorating scheme. I found this to be amusing, given that his sole contribution to our decorating ideas was "Hey, I bet we could put some cool beer lights on that wall!" If one could pick up a dressform off the street and put it in your room, are you really that far away from buying a ridiculously expensive crystal crackpipe?

Maybe if it were on sale...