It's official. I am 15 years old again.

I know this because I bought Tiger Beat yesterday. Fricking Tiger Beat magazine.

Why, you wonder, would I do such a thing? I am a grown woman. Chronologically, anyway...

Because there was a picture of Clay Aiken in it, of course. One picture. I spent 3 dollars and 99 cents on a crappy teen periodical just for a picture I could have downloaded from the internet for free. But if I did that, I wouldn't be able to examine it REALLY UP CLOSE for freckles and what not.

Then, of course, because I found one magazine with a picture of Clay in it, my extremely AGILE mind deduced that there might even be more such publications! So I stood in the aisle at Target scouring every page of every magazine with a celebrity edge just for a glimpse of The Buttercup himself. And guess what...

I FOUND ONE MORE! It made that 20 minutes of my life I will never get back TOTALLY WORTH IT. I proceeded to spend another 1 dollar and 99 cents on THE BIGGEST PIECE OF GARBAGE WEEKLY GOSSIP MAGAZINE (which shall remain nameless). At least this one had an article. A totally bogus article, but words nonetheless. I felt like I was really getting my money's worth with this one.

My collection is up to 6. Six magazines purchased solely for pictures of Clay Aiken. I mean, I haven't done this since I was 15 and I bought magazines like Creem and Rolling Stone just because there was a 1x1 inch black and white picture of the back of Sting's head in it. It's just that I HAVE TO HAVE IT.

Isn't my happiness worth $5.98?