This post is lovingly dedicated to my friend Yvonne in honour of her recent dish-shopping excursion.

When I was watching Hoarders a few weeks ago I noticed something quite familiar: My dinner plate!
In the Joanne/Kristi episode which first aired on Jan. 30, the camera briefly zoomed in on a Corelle dinner plate which in true Hoarders fashion, was sitting on a flimsy bag of old cat litter.

Joanne’s daughter Robayn explains:

When I paused and zoomed in on the hoard I discovered the plate was from Corelle’s “Old Town Blue” line. I would know because I’ve stared at that damn pattern for most of my life and seeing it again on Hoarders made me realise that it’s time to buy some new dishes.

When I was a child I ate off those plates, when I was 17 I  brought a few to my first apartment, and today I still have one. My friend Yuri Doric took this relatively recent photo of me eating dinner off of it:

My dishes, frankly, are an embarrassment. My friends are the centre of my life and having them over for dinner is one of my greatest joys. And frankly, it’s a little embarrassing to serve them dinner on these shitty plates:

I am not a materialistic person, but I don’t want to live in squalor. Wearing ragged clothes, sitting on broken furniture, and eating off crappy old dishes is downright depressing and entirely unnecessary. It’s not about being a snob but I think it’s important to have some basic standards.

Mismatched thrift store swag just don’t cut it any more!

Living like some kind of dumpster goblin doesn’t seem to faze some people but I’m tired of it so I’m going to go out and get a nice new set of dishes at some point in the near future.

Are you up for a trip to Costco, Steph?