crass consumerism

[kindkit]

1) I finally gave in and bought a bottle of Beaufort's lovely ginger/pepper/smoke perfume Coeur de Noir. I dithered about it for ages: did I love it enough to buy a whole bottle, especially when my perfume opportunities are limited (work has a no-perfume policy)? But recently I wore it again from my sample, having not worn it for a while, and I loved it even more than I remembered. Then a few days later I tried to wear it again and my vial was empty, oh noes! When I found myself opening up the vial and rubbing a cotton swab along the inside to get the last traces, I figured I wouldn't regret the bottle.

It was delivered today from Bloom Perfumery, along with the other samples I ordered and a couple of 2 ml freebies. (Freebies are Monsieur and Sucre d'Ebene, both from Pierre Guillaume; Monsieur sounds fine based on the listed notes, while Sucre sounds unsurprisingly too sweet; I mostly haven't loved other PG scents I've tried.) Despite my resolve to test scents in a more systematic way, I ended up ordering a hodgepodge of things that sounded interesting and/or have been recommended to me: Black Vetiver by Phaedon Paris, Haxan by Parfum Prissana, Oud Imperial by Perris Monte Carlo, Savitri by Parfum Prissana, Larmes du Desert by Atelier des Ors, Lentisque by Phaedon Paris, Nuits de Bakelite and Iris Cendré by Naomi Goodsir, Iron Duke and Terror and Magnificence by Beaufort, Northman by Alexander, Chypre Shot by Olfactive Studio, Garuda by Jul et Mad, and Tara Mantra by Gri Gri.

Excited to have new scents to try. Perfume testing in the fall/winter is not what's usually advised, I think, but I feel more myself in cooler weather and I seem to enjoy perfumes more then.


2) Also delivered today, the teas I ordered from Tea Source. I got the Phantom Power oolong (they describe it as "a hearty cup of fruit and bone," and I really could not resist); Clouds and Mist Supreme, which is a Chinese green tea from Sichuan, said to be floral and cucumbery; Clearwater Sencha, which is a Japanese green tea from the Saemidori cultivar and is said to have qualities of cantaloupe and snap peas (I've had what Tea Source called otsuka saemidori, which one of the heavily brothy, savory Japanese greens, and adored it, but alas Tea Source no longer has it); Root Word raw pu'er ("salted plums, citrus rind, juniper, and wilderness"); and Jasmine Dragon Pearls, which is your basic bitch of a jasmine tea but I like it a lot. As you can see, Tea Source gives their products fanciful names, which I don't love because it makes it harder to find something similar, but they do also provide lots of info about where the teas are grown, who grows them, and how they're processed. I'm too ignorant for most of it to mean much to me, but I like that Tea Source knows. And I've always found their teas to be really high quality, which I can't say for teas I've bought locally from other retailers (even specialty ones). That's why I go to the effort of ordering online. Shipping is free if you order over a certain amount.


3) And finally, today I spent the price of over a month's rent on a goddamn chair. It's a recliner, which I'm going to need when I finally manage to get top surgery; sleeping in a recliner rather than bed is recommended for a while after surgery. I probably should have bought it in a sensible way, by comparison-shopping online etc., but instead I procrastinated for ages and then finally walked into a furniture store that I've passed multiple times without going in, "just to see what they have," and ended up spending $$$. It's a powered recliner, which feels silly to me but apparently these days, the only manual recliners available also rock and swivel, which I didn't want. And when I thought about it, I figured that the ability to change positions with the push of a button might be very welcome post-surgery.

I feel (a) astonished that anyone can afford to have a whole houseful of furniture*, (b) pleased that I will finally have a comfortable chair like a goddamn adult, (c) full of longing for a nice place with nice furniture that I could enjoy living in rather than tolerate, and (d) horrified that the delivery people will contrast this expensive chair with my shitty apartment and probably laugh at me after they leave.

It's not actually being delivered until Dec. 13, the first available date on which I was neither working nor booked up with medical appointments. So I have some time to figure out where I'm going to put it.

The chair, by the way, is quite ugly but comfortable, which is the important bit. I also fell in love with a $500 rug (on sale from $900) but I did not buy it.

(*I know estate sales, thrift stores, etc. exist. I've yet to see a piece of furniture or a rug in a local thrift store that I'd pay money for**, and even if I did find a great bargain, I have no way to transport it or get it up the two flights of stairs to my apartment. Delivery is a must.)

(**Thrift stores seem to be geographically variable. I used to get great stuff, including furniture, from them when I lived in Minneapolis. Here in Santa Fe it's all junk--SF is full of rich people who resell their furniture at $$$ consignment stores. There are also, I'm told, a lot of people now who make their living combing thrift stores, snatching up all the good stuff, and reselling it online at a premium. So some it's just changing times, I guess. *sigh* I do feel like it's increasingly hard to get by if you're not rich. I'm definitely not poor anymore, but a comfortable life feels almost as financially out of reach as it always did. And I don't think that's just a matter of rising expectations.

Anyway, I have a chair! Or I will in a month, anyway.

Comments

[sovay]

And finally, today I spent the price of over a month's rent on a goddamn chair.

Congratulations on your goddamn chair! My parents' house has a recliner which I have watched multiple people comfortably fall asleep in. (My grandparents' house had a truly archaic recliner in which I used to read.)

[kindkit]

I've kind of always wanted a recliner, despite the perception that it's an Old People thing, so in a way this was an excuse. Anyway I'm almost an old people myself now.

[sovay]

I've kind of always wanted a recliner, despite the perception that it's an Old People thing, so in a way this was an excuse.

I hope you enjoy it very much.

(My grandparents' was on the screened-in front porch; I used to crank it open and park myself in it with a stack of books. I loved it.)

[aurumcalendula]

Ooh! I'll have to check that tea website out!

[kindkit]

I used to go to their retail shop when I lived in Minneapolis, which is how I got to know and trust them as a source. They don't have the biggest selection, but it seems to be carefully chosen.

[genarti]

Thrift stores really seem to be hugely variable by location. Here in Boston, as far as I can find they're generally both pricey and picked over. I'd honestly given up on thrift stores, but then in the last year, trips to Chicago and Montreal both yielded great finds from thrift stores I stopped impulsively into. I only had a few minutes to stop in, both times, and hadn't traveled to a specifically recommended store or anything, and yet. It single-handedly restored my faith in thrift shopping, but not in the city I actually live in. (And I haven't gone looking for furniture there. At Boston antique stores, yes, and I've found them to be hugely variable between places that are full of affordable finds arranged higgledy piggledy in grand antique store style and places that are basically enormously expensive consignment shops.)

ETA: Congratulations on your chair! Also, that tea sounds amazing.

[kindkit]

Thanks! I'm about to try the fruit-and-bone oolong.

Talking about thrift shops reminded me that I've never tried the Habitat for Humanity shop, which is the obvious place to look for housewares. It's just oddly located, in a part of town I never really go to, so I forget it exists.

[rydra_wong]

Then a few days later I tried to wear it again and my vial was empty, oh noes! When I found myself opening up the vial and rubbing a cotton swab along the inside to get the last traces, I figured I wouldn't regret the bottle.

Solid call!

Nuits de Bakelite

I may well have been the one to rec this at you; it's really interesting. It's technically a tuberose, which normally I can admire in perfumery but is the opposite of "me", but it's GREEN and sharp and vegetal.

[kindkit]

That was you! I'm planning to try it first, because I've been curious for ages. I've been wanting something with really really sharp green notes, so it might be just the thing.

[rydra_wong]

And even if it doesn't hit the spot of what you're looking for personally, it's interesting enough that it's worth smelling anyway, IMHO. It always feels like bottle-green glass to me.

[rattfan]

Definitely glad to hear about your goddamned chair (g). I have an elderly armchair/recliner that was a present [secondhand at the time but very good shape] and these days I have to use an extra cushion but still very worthwhile. A bit chewed at the edges because my pet rats were fond of it too.

I don't think a huge amount of furniture is necessary, really. i live on my own so I've got a futon frame, said armchair, a small couch, small table, study desk/chair and a couple of other items and that's it. [Oh, and bookcases, of course there are bookcases].

I think we've got those folks who make a living from thrift stores as well, but we also have a neighbourhood Facebook group where people give away or ask for stuff people no longer need and that works pretty well.

Tea place looks interesting. I had a hard job finding tea in the USA when I visited! I know one person who is a tea afficionado, near Denver CO.

I visited Santa Fe on one trip and my conclusion was very much a tourist town; would that be right? Enjoyed visiting it a lot but definitely didn't seem like an inexpensive place to live.

[kindkit]

Thinking about it, my furniture situation (or, properly, lack of furniture situation) is probably down to the weirdness of my economic life. Short version: long period of being flat broke as a young adult in graduate school, then two cross-country moves where I sold/gave away such furniture as I had, then another long period of being flat broke; it's really only in the last couple of years that buying furniture again has been at all realistic.

Nevertheless, when I look at couches that aren't even well-made and cost $1500, I am amazed.

As for Santa Fe, yes, very touristy. It's an old town by US standards and it was isolated and sleepy for a long time, but then came the hippies and the Georgia O'Keefe fans, and the place is overrun every summer. More recently, the film industry--which is economically beneficial overall--has brought in film crews and movie stars renting houses, and film people buying vacation homes, and that plus Air B&B plus NIMBYism makes housing prices unbelievable*. A lot of service workers have to commute in from towns 30+ miles away. (I'm able to live in town, but only because I got into my shitty, income-controlled apartment when I was flat broke, and now I'm grandfathered in. I hate the place but I can't afford anywhere else, and I make pretty decent money considering I work in a grocery store.)

*They're nothing compared to, say, California, but they're bad.

[delphi]

Congrats on the chair! A comfortable recliner really is worth the price. We've got a decent secondhand market where I live, since we're on an island, which makes people more likely to leave their furniture behind if they leave - but also what seems to me a weird lack of delivery options. As it is, I count myself 'lucky' that my apartment is tiny, as it decreases the longing for furniture I can't afford. In terms of big pieces, I've got room for a bed, a table with a chair, some shelves, and that's it.

I do feel like it's increasingly hard to get by if you're not rich. I'm definitely not poor anymore, but a comfortable life feels almost as financially out of reach as it always did.

Man, do I hear you.

[kindkit]

also what seems to me a weird lack of delivery options

I've been pondering lately on the interconnectedness of this and the fact that (in the US, but I get the impression that it's increasingly true in other parts of the world) everybody thinks they need to own a huge truck. Some of it's weird macho BS, but I think some of it's genuinely "but what if I need to move a refrigerator?"

In re: the cost of living, I feel like a nice* apartment has been $300 a month out of my reach for my entire adult life. Though now it may be more like $500.

*And my standards for "nice" aren't all that high.

[delphi]

Yeah, I think the whole emissions regulations workaround that led to the rise in SUVs and larger pick-ups is a huge contributing factor. A lack of store delivery makes some sense where I am, because most stock has to be brought in from the mainland, so the store doesn't want to be a middleman. I'm just surprised that in a time when delivery for smaller products is at an all-time high, there isn't more partnership with some local businesses to deliver bigger things.

In re: the cost of living, I feel like a nice* apartment has been $300 a month out of my reach for my entire adult life. Though now it may be more like $500.

That's it exactly. I've almost sextupled my gross earnings in the years since finishing school, and a one-bedroom apartment with decent climate control options has remained just out of reach. I count myself very lucky to be able to live without roommates, but it's still wild to compare to my parents' rental and homeowning options back in the day.