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Some people take multiple cigarette breaks during the day. Others may compulsively buy and play scratch off lotto tickets. Still others may take swigs from a flask in their top desk drawer. I am not compelled to do any of these things, nor do I sniff sharpies or white out. Instead I instinctively search Craigslist.

This honestly wouldn't be a big deal if I was looking for something, say, that I needed. I have found everything from a former job to the bed I sleep in on Craigslist and have rid many an apartment of unwanted stuff simply by placing an ad. However, I look at it more from a sociological perspective and am amazed at what I find.

I look at houses in Des Moines, apartments in Paris, cars in Florida, and shoes in Canada. I look for writing gigs in Maine and Georgia, and opportunities that might suit my friends around the globe. I then play "who are the people in my neighborhood" and search the For Sale and Wanted listings in Sunnyside stealing peaks into people's homes through pictures of their old couches and chairs. While sometimes hoping that I never run into these folks as one person last year in my very own town was looking to "pay money for teeth" which he planned on adding to his collection.

Do I apply or inquire about any of these ads? No. The most I do is forward them to my fianc or others saying "look we could buy an entire ranch in Nebraska for what we make in a month!" Or "look we could become unpaid animal wranglers in Vermont!"

I look at the wedding dresses for sale to read the sad and angry tales of women selling brand new dresses never worn because they caught their louse of a fiance with their maid of honor. I read stories of people selling their first car that looks better suited to be a planter telling the story of every ding and scratch.

I feel Craigslist allows me to windowshop different lives for a while, one where I might drive a 1982 Cadillac El Dorado, to my trailer near the beach that I paid $25K for, that I made while "working from home" as a telemarketer. Or picking an enormous overpriced house in Boston but refinishing the hideous living room with furniture for sale in Brooklyn Heights.

So yes, I'll admit it, I am a Craigslist addict. However, I'd like to think if all I do is look but don't buy it is the cyberspace equivalent of "I didn't inhale."

Learn more about this author, Jen Limarzi.
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