desires of the heart

I felt a tug yesterday. I was standing in front of the school supplies in the seasonal isle at Smith's. The summer things are fading away, quickly being replaced by rows of fresh notebooks, clean binders, crisp folders, note cards and all of the pens, pencils and post-its you could ever want.
This time of year has always been special to me. All the school supplies appearing on shelves stir up some interesting feelings in my heart and in my gut. Don't even get me started on the mental rush I get when I walk into a place like Staples or Office Depot. Those places just smell so good.
I used to frequent those stores and I always had such a difficult time trying to keep myself from blowing all my cash on mountains of paper and the perfect pens. It's kind of like being a kid in a candy store, but with office supplies.
I'm not sure if I can explain what caused my fixation and desire as I'm not exactly sure when it began.
The interesting thing about this attraction to school supplies is that I haven't really noticed it in the last two years. Perhaps I was just a bit oblivious, still in the cloudy haze of being a newlywed and a new mother. But I couldn't deny the pull I felt last night. I had to eventually pry myself away lest I pull all of the contents off those shelves and into my cart before dashing to the nearest check-out to pay for my prize. I would walk out of the store with my head held high and my feet seemingly floating a couple of feet above the ground. Alas, we were there for groceries and not fresh notebooks as my heart would have me believe.
In the aftermath I am trying to figure out what this tug meant. Was it simply a blast-from-the-past reminder of my addiction to school/office supplies? Or a heartfelt plea from my subconscious of a desire to be part of the back-to-school hustle'n'bustle? Truth is, I don't know. All I know is: those notebooks are shouting my name and I feel I'll soon need to answer the call.