my friends hate me

They want me to ignore all my responsibilities, go around like some drug-addicted crack whore, and watch my life go in the proverbial toilet as my obsession spirals out of control. My entire life has now been derailed.

OK, maybe it isn't quite that bad, but I'll start from the beginning. Several weeks ago, a friend gave me, among other things, two little boxes, which I opened when I got home. They were really cool. And I looked on the box, and in what now turns out to be an unfortunate discovery, I saw that there was a website printed on the box.

I now need to quit my job because I'm going to spend the rest of my life looking for all the different sets of stuff and then creating a spiffy environment for them.

This is one of the boxes I got. It's a grab bag of sorts as there are 10 different sets that can potentially be in the box, but you don't know what's actually in the box until you've opened it.

This is the one I actually got.


I love that the cup has tea in it.


This is the other box I got. It's also a grab bag box.

This is the one I actually got in that set.


We can't figure out what the yellow stuff on the plate is. It looks kind of like tamago, but I'm not sure that makes sense.


I love pretty much every one of that set, but I really want this one.


I love the sweet shrimp, though I prefer the heads fried, and I think it's funny that the tea bag is just floating in the cup.


Here's a page that lists their products.


This is a set that I really like.

I love the little lobster.




And I love the little bbq set.


Everything is just so cute - the hot dog and corn and skewer, and even the little compartmentalized plates. Yeah, I know the scale is off compared to the size of the grill, but who cares.


This apple pie set from another collection is really cute.


It even has a corer with an apple in it.


This jello set is cool - it even includes the molds.




I love this table set-up.



And no, I have no idea what any of that stuff says.


I love this cake.




This whole set is incredible.

The turkey one is cool, but the birthday one with the banana split and cake is awesome.




And then there's cabinetry and stuff to stock them with.




I wasn't sure if I should be down on my knees being thankful to my friend or cursing her name! But then the plot thickened.

About a week later, another friend got me a box in this set, which is so incredibly cool.

This is the one I actually got.


I love the cinnamon roll, though in real life, I prefer it without the icing.


I love this one too.


It's even got a cracked egg in a bowl.


And then about a week after that, another friend joined the party and got me a box from this set, which had the following in it.




However, this box led to the discovery that there was ANOTHER WEBSITE full of more products. Whiskey tango foxtrot.

This is the set I'm really wanting, probably for obvious reasons. But come on, how incredibly cute are they?


I love the Mickey-shaped burger buns and the Mickey-shaped plates and the random Mickeys everywhere.


This is a really cool set, and this is another cool set. And if you're going to be making all those goodies, you've gotta have this set to make all the stuff with and to do other household chores.

I can't read much of anything on the website, but I sure didn't have a problem finding the full products page.

At this point, I was still trying to resist the temptation of going in pursuit of little tiny boxes.


And then yet another friend joined in the fray, and last week, I got from her two boxes out of this collection, which is also a grab bag.

Here's one of the ones I got.


The milk carton doghouse is just too funny.


And here's the second.




I think this one is so incredibly cute.




There are so many more products on this site, which is the Japanese one, than there are on the U.S. site that I haven't even gone through them all. And even though I now own "only" 6 boxes of the stuff, I've already developed a snobbery of sorts - some of the collections are meant for U.S. distribution and the box is labeled with a bit more English. But the ones I prefer are the Japanese version that have very little English on the box, and each also comes with a little square gum, which is taken out for the U.S. packaging. I'm not sure if that's for health reasons or whatever. The first one I got with the Japanese packaging was the Bread and Butter one, and when I opened it, I at first thought it was a little pillow because I didn't know what else it could be. Now that I know - I still would rather believe it's a little pillow. Who needs gum? So I'm finding that I prefer the Japanese-packaged ones, but I'm not sure if everything comes in both versions, and I'm not snobbish enough to only want the Japanese ones.


That being said, I found myself completely obsessing over the entire collection. (No, that never happens, right?) I know that Japantown would have a good supply of them, but do I dare go? Do I dare trust myself to venture into a box-filled store with my credit cards in hand? The boxes are about $5 a piece, which isn't too bad - unless I buy a billion of them. This particular collection really captures my interest because it combines two things I've loved and been interested in for a long time - miniatures and plastic food. So miniatures OF plastic food? I'm toast.

I think I've decided that I'm allowed one box a week - that's not too bad. And then immediately after that, I thought about how much I generally spend on lunch a week, and if I cut back on that, I could instead use some of that money to be able to buy an extra box. Nope, not obsessed at all.

I know that there's a store in the Northridge Mall that carries some of this inventory, and at first, I decided that going there was a really bad idea. Well, I'm supposed to be having dinner with a friend this Friday night, and I've decided I do want to go. By the end of the week, I will technically be allowed to buy 3 boxes - 4 if I pre-buy for the following week. I've not seen the store yet, so I have no idea the quantity of stuff they have there. We'll see if my head just explodes from trying to figure out what I want. Do I buy 4 boxes all in the same set so I have a better chance of getting everything in that set? Or do I buy 4 boxes from different sets so I can guarantee I don't get duplicates? But in a lot of cases, having duplicates is fine. What kind of bakery would only have ONE cinnamon roll to sell?

This whole thing started less than four weeks ago, and it has really escalated, literally, week by week. I am so amazed to have friends who not only know my interests so well as to get me completely addicted to something totally new, but who also share my interest and who contribute to the growing addiction.

Everyone should be so lucky to have friends who hate them this much.