I collect state quarters.
There, I've said it.
Geeky shame aside, it's quite thrilling to discover the latest quarter in a handful of change.
The only thing geekier than collecting state quarters is actually having a favorite one.
I'm partial to North Carolina and its scene from North by Northwest.
Or, you can view it as the Wright Brothers and Flyer in the "First Flight."
If it in any way redeems my cool factor, I should probably mention that I don't have the collector's map (as seen on TV).
I keep them in a commemorative book.
Big difference.
I'll have to wait until 2008 until my collection is complete. That's quite an investment of interest and dedication. Maybe by 2008, my kids will be able to put the last couple quarters in the slots.
Or maybe, I'll have a mean teenage daughter (parental payback) who will use my set of quarters to pay for a movie or lunch at the mall's food court. My biggest fear is having a daughter who puts me to shame in terms of teen angst and bitterness.
I wasn't a bad kid. I just put myself first in many a situation.
When I was a junior in high school, for example, I took some of my dad's books and sold them at a used bookstore for the cash. Not a complete monster, I picked books that were in my dad's "donate" area of the garage.
When stealing salt and pepper shakers from restaurants and selling your dad's books are the worse things you did as a teenager, I think there's a lot of room for redemption.
Rationalizations aside, I felt horrible when I was at the book store -- maybe because of the way I anthropomorphize books. But it's not like he was giving away the classics. I distinctly remember one of the books being The WASP Mystique. Now, who wants that lying around the house?
