I Might Be a Dragon

Some people want to be mermaids. Others want to be unicorns. But me, I think I might be more of a dragon. No, I'm not some big scaly reptile with little pink wings. And no, I don't breathe fire, although Little Bear might disagree with that after my reaction to the purple snowmen she drew on my kitchen walls.

I'm thinking more in terms of my various hoards. I'm not a hoarder in need of a reality television intervention. I mean hoards as in collections of treasures.

I have a hoard of craft supplies. The bonus room over our garage has everything from ribbons to shells to wrapping paper tubes to buttons to boxes to who knows what else. It's one step short of utter chaos out there, but it sure came in handy when I was a Girl Scout leader and the girls suddenly wanted to make things like fairy houses. Not everybody would have the supplies for that just lying around.

I have a major hoard of books. A friend recently told me, "You could just use the library." She doesn't get it. When I read a good book, it becomes a part of me, and I want to have it around. If I like one book in a series, I'm going to get the whole series. If I like an author, you can bet I'm going to snag as many of his or her books as I can find.

I even have a hoard of dragons. It started with a Webkinz, and blossomed from there. They have to be friendly and cute to be part of my squad.

Come to think of it, I come from a long line of dragons. My grandma's hoard was teacups and saucers. For my mom, it was ceramic birds. My aunt had hoards of glass chickens, and salt and pepper shakers. I'm afraid I've passed the dragon life on to both of my girls. They each have their own book hoards and one of them has nearly enough stuffed animals to start her own museum. I won't say which one.

All things considered, you can keep your mermaids and unicorns. It's good to be a dragon.