Porcelain dolls.

So, it's not particularly the most interesting hobby or collection, but, for the past 10 or so years, I have collected porcelain dolls. You can imagine how many I have by now- I believe I'm currently at over 85. Porcelain dolls aren't cool, I know. They're not fun, you can't really play with them, they're not "mature looking" or anything, they're not punk or hip, they don't look really awesome, they just look old. They look old and fragile and they look like dolls. But I like them.

A lot of people have said that me enjoying "playing" with dolls even now is a sign that I would want to be in a position where I would work with children when I get older- a housewife, a pediatric nurse, a kindergarten teacher, a nanny/babysitter. But I have to say that they're wrong there. First of all, I don't "play" with the dolls. I don't re-enact little scenes with them, they don't "talk" to me, I don't feed them, nothing like that. I care for them. If they break, I fix them up. If their clothes are filthy, I'll wash them. It's not a game, it's general upkeep. Perhaps that shows that I should be something like a museum curator when I'm older instead?

Not all my porcelain dolls even have names. Sure, some of the larger ones (18", 17", 16") have names- Elizabeth, Hitty, Annie, Emily, Laura, Mary, Angela- but just as many have names that wouldn't be used by any human I know of- Gypsy Girl, Girl with Glasses, Girl with Mask, Ballerina, Formal Doll, Christmas One, School Girl, etc. And many of the smaller ones don't have even that- there's just too many. So, if I have to refer to one of them, I'll just point or something like that.

I wouldn't exactly say that I'm a serious collector, even though I have a fairly large amount. To start out, I don't usually buy my dolls from the places that you would usually expect me to- upscale antique stores, from magazines, on the internet, etc. I usually get my dolls from little, cheap antique stores, pawn shops, buy/trade bookstores, etc. In fact, unless I'm particularly fond of a certain doll, I won't pay more than $8 for her.

So, that's my take on a childhood habit gone wrong.