A Real-Life Anthropologie Catalogue

I often say that I'd like to live in an Anthropologie catalogue. That sounds sort of silly (especially since it's been about five years since I could afford to shop there [also, completely disagree with the owner on many issues that extend past the pricing of items]). Nevertheless, the store (the way it smells, the colors) and/or the catalogue (it's always somewhere dreamy like Rome; it's always, ya know, sunset)  is a happy place for me. Do you have a happy place like that?

My friend Corinne called me yesterday pretty upset. She's in nursing school and it's been a dream of hers to get there. To be in the hospital. We talked about how hard it is to sustain any kind of peaceful (let alone hopeful) mood about life sometimes. How hard it is to look at what you've accomplished with any kind of realistic perspective (both of us dismiss our achievements pretty easily). How easy it is to start weighing the merits of others against our own. And how hard it is to remain hopeful when so many things do not live up to our expectations.


In a way, this blog is how I do that-- collecting dreamy things, mood building, mood-sustaining.


So, a kind of mission statement. Mission Statement?

Yeah, there is one for this. Because it’s too easy for whatever online presence one might maintain to become just a collage of likes or rants or a half-assed version of diary. (Which is probably fine for a  lot of people—productive even). But if I’m going to get a bunch of shit from people I really respect for keeping one, it’s important to me (and to you, if you’re reading this) for me to be accountable for what I put here.

A lot of it (and why it’s daily) is about a diligent effort to sustain (choose to sustain) that certain mood. Selective mood-building. The idea is that If I can fill my day (and yours)with the kind of thoughts that create the moods I do want, then there will be less room for the moods I don’t want.

This song, that book, this idea, that poem. Maybe you don’t know of this entry already, and we can open a door together. Or maybe you do already know, and then we can experience some kind of fellowship about that. We can stop, at least for a few minutes each day and dream.

The dreamy, truth place. That’s where I want to live. This piece of internet real estate is where I build that. All other dreamy people are welcome here. This is how I get to live in my own Anthropologie catalogue.


Well... and the whole moving to Scotland thing.

Man Shops Globe (the Anthropologie guy) has a pretty sweet show on the Sundance channel (God bless you, Robert Redford, for so many reasons.) This week, Man Shops Globe went to Scotland. It was essentially the tonal nexus of my universe. Anthro, Scotland, gay guys, rainbows, plaid, dreamy things. And I'm wrapping myself in a big blanket of that mood and coasting all the way into a summer weekend full of writing and friends.

Have a great weekend everyone!