Heaven knows, I've exposed myself in my novels through the use of fantasy and imagination... now my new book is about what really happened to me... not my heroines.
I got that experience through dating dozens of men for six years after college, getting an entry level magazine job at 21, working in the fiction department at Good Housekeeping and then working as a fashion editor there as well as writing many articles for the magazine.
On the one hand, shopping is dependable: You can do it alone, if you lose your heart to something that is wrong for you, you can return it it's instant gratification and yet something you buy may well last for years.