Define splurge

I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and one of the (many) things that struck me was an offhand comment about Amish friends of hers. My rough paraphrase is, You can tell a lot about someone based on how they define the word splurge.

Now, I'm not suggesting I am as self-possessed and simple as the family in the book. I like things. I like good chocolate, I like my Roomba. On a global scale, I am more spoiled than most people in the world.

But my needs aren't too great either.

When I started talking to people about what I wanted to do with my summer off, I told them that the first thing I wanted to do was pamper myself for a little while until I felt better. People told me it was a good idea and started asking myself how I intended to pamper myself. Was I going to get a massage? a pedicure? some good wine?

Umm, no. All I really wanted was to curl up in my bed in the afternoon with a book. Maybe a cup of coffee. And for lunch I wanted to saute some vegetables from my CSA basket before they went bad (and to eat them without a 10th grader hitting me in the back of the head with a grape).

I'm not perfect, and I think my goal in life is to become the kind of person whose splurges are always this simple, but it makes me smile to know that in some things I can already be so easily pleased.