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etoilesdephan · 7 years

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Draw me from this fantasy; Save me from this nightmare

Summary: Dan Howell is what everyone calls a troubled artist. Lies of love are a norm for him in the world that he sees so bleak. It slowly changes with the arrival of a new neighbor - an independent filmmaker Phil Lester.

Chapter: 1/??

Word count: 3646/??

TW: None, currently. Mild mention of nsfw theme, nothing graphic though.

Beta: @parentaladvisorybullshitcontent thank you so much!!!

Read it on ao3!

A/N: A little brainchild fic of mine that turned out a lot longer than I would've expected it to <3 I hope to finish the next part soon! :) Originally inspired by the songs ''When'' and ''Sick of losing soulmates'' by dodie <3

The softest of murmur of a far-gone memory whispered in the back of his mind, his fingers trailing the smooth texture of the paper, not yet stained by the ink. The feeling of warm skin conjured itself in his imagination, the sensation similar under fingertips, yet there was something dead about the reality whilst the imagination breathed life, blood coursing with the warmth of million unsaid words.

Such a soft feeling.

Such harsh words came to the darkening mind. He'd never loved any of them, though he'd lied to say he had, in the midst of passionate nights and lingering high after another hookup.

He didn't know why he lied to them, when it clearly never meant anything. Boys who said that they liked his eyes, kissed his skin with hot mouths, trailed his body with electrifying fingers.

He only knew desire and passion as the closest to love. He refused to believe in anything less than ideal.

Yet he kept on lying. For if one day it would not be a lie, he'd not be scared of the reality and would allow the warm embrace of the perfection to take him.

Smoke slowly curled into the air from between his lips; his last cigarette, he'd promised himself. He knew very well, though that it was just another lie, the freshly opened package sitting within his reach. He felt the tickling sensation, just like the faintest ghost, linger on his mouth before it was gone and he placed the cigarette between his lips once more.

He liked to imagine, remember, paint the past with brighter colours than the bleak reality had been. The tip of the pen pressed against the page, he paused for another drag before he exhaled, the smoke escaping through his nostrils before he began to write.

Dan Howell was what everyone calls a troubled artist.

His appearance, though clearly polished, held some wildness about it, be it the pitch darkness of the colours he wore or the sharp corners of the accessories that littered the clothing. His interactions were as smoothed out, a pattern established that was seen unkind. He'd pushed most people away in his life, year after year shedding skins and building walls, for his only escape seemed to be deep within his own head, excusing himself as finding everything dull around him.

And then the liquor and cigarettes had filled his hours, allowing for him to slip further and further into his mind, a place he showed no wish to retreat from most days. Only nights brought him to life, when a blur of toxic locations and strange men took up his consciousness.

Everything about his apartment displayed the mess; once such a tidy man, every surface of his flat now was covered in stray pieces of paper, old writing utensils and books, only the shelf of CDs and DVDs neat to a t.

There was an old piano in the corner, mostly gathering dust though the keys proved anyone who thought it was just a decoration wrong by shining, clean. A guitar, meanwhile, was barely noticeable between an array of piled notebooks, a chair that barely could hold any weight and some long-forgotten Christmas decorations.

An assortment of bills and unopened letters of congratulations littered the kitchen table.

See, although troubled and known to be a recluse by most, he'd successfully gotten published and it was so that his work had gone on to be quite successful. It brought in the money that kept filling his mind with alcohol and lungs with smoke. It kept his ink running and allowed his conscious hours to turn to the well-developed fantasy world.

The world that he had sunk into on this day as well, dark eyes rimmed red with the lack of sleep, dark circles underneath magnifying the tired look.

A loud bang at his door sent his hand to cross over the word he'd just written and his head shot up to eye the otherwise inanimate wood, as loud bangs and knocks against and behind it echoed through his apartment. He could have sworn that there was some muted muttering, though he could catch no curse within those words.

He willed the sound to end, staring as if the door could somehow cease to produce it, but when it didn't, he dropped the pen and stood, his limbs numb from the hours spent seated, and he made his way across the space towards the front door and pulled it open.

He'd expected a lot of things; a person, a piece of furniture or even a surprise truck to face him in the stairway. What he hadn't expected however, was that he'd be faced by a large, fluffy white rabbit costume head, verging on the edge of falling off the coat rack it was on and right into Dan's arms.

''Oh, sorry, I'll get that out of your doorway!'' a voice suddenly poured from behind the weird formation and for a moment his drowsy mind imagined it to be the head speaking before it was pulled aside to reveal a man of his own height and width but nothing spoke of their personalities aligning. The light blue shirt, the equally piercing tint of his eyes, the bright smile on the pale face and an enthusiastic hand thrust in Dan's direction ''I'm Phil, Phil Lester. Just moving in; I promise to make less sound after I'm done. The stairway is a lot narrower than I thought.'' Dan only mutely took his hand for a brief handshake. Though unsociable, he wasn't entirely impolite. And besides, there was something about the newly not-stranger that stirred something in Dan, and for a moment he felt a little more awake than he'd felt in what felt like weeks.

First time in a while a real person had stirred his curiosity.

And yet, the lead in his limbs was evident and though sober, his mind felt tipsy. No amount of genuine human wondering could pull the young author from below the heavy waters.

''Mind the other door,'' he finally spoke, after a silent moment of observing the other man, voice raspy and his tongue feeling like he'd licked an ashtray ''The old lady will yell at you if you as much as breathe at her clean handles.'' An attempt at joking sound, there was a bit of a miserable flatness that fell in his tone. His eyelids closed, but to open them was a lot harder chore than he'd last recalled it to be.

Phil, clearly excited that his attempt at small talk had succeeded, looked over at the said door whilst completely unaffected by the lacking enthusiasm in Dan's tone ''Thanks for the head's up! By the way, what's your--'' was all Dan heard, before his door had fallen shut already, not forceful, but simply desperate for a retreat, for sleep, and for the image of talking rabbits to leave his deliriously drowsy head.

With the mild awakeness had come emotions and a dripping sickly in the pit of his stomach was embarrassment that he was not ready to digest now.

Silence followed, briefly, but Dan was out, one arm hanging over the edge of the sofa, when the next item that Phil was carrying knocked against his door.

====

The sunset dyed the sky bright reds and pinks when he awoke, the low light tickling his nose with the dust in the thick air. He lay on his back, unmoving, the eyes still heavy-lidded and unseeing. It took a while longer until he woke up enough to realise that he'd not awoken naturally and instead another tentative knock on his door brought his attention.

He let the sound sink in, slowly, just as tentatively as the knuckles rattling against the hardwood. Had he been more awake, he would've laughed about how he'd never once thought a door to have so much personality.

There was shuffling, so finally he sat up, pushing his body, stomach rumbling hungrily, up once more and across the narrow spaces only to once more be greeted by that smiling face once the door was opened.

Something ethereal had laced the air around the other man and Dan had no words to offer even if he tried to. So taken was he, by that look, that atmosphere. The usual bleakness of everyone in his life had caused his disinterest and he'd pushed them away. Yet here stood a man, just like many others, and there was light, joy and hints of soft laughter in the silent air around him.

''Oh! I'm sorry for waking you up!'' the other man, after surveying the ruffled state of the writer, began to apologise, but Dan just shook his head, lithe fingers soon combing through the curling hair to fix himself up a little. ''I went to the store earlier, but I completely forgot to buy salt and pepper,'' Phil went on, once assured that it was fine to go on ''My mum would always say to not overdo it with the salt, says it's bad for me, but,'' he waved his arms, shrugging his shoulders, the slight flail causing a slight smile on Dan's tired face ''Honestly, who can eat without at least some basic spices?''

As soon as it had began, the words stopped flowing and bright blues settled once more on Dan and the latter couldn't help to stare back. He felt mute in the shining presence, the one with so much life in it, so much that for once he didn't feel terrible for being in the reality.

''So, uh, could I borrow some from you?'' Phil inquired, a little awkwardly, when not granted any response.

Dan blinked, and he could feel how the life flowed into his limbs once more, and his vision cleared ''Oh, yes, of course,'' he turned away only to look back at this magical being of a man whose first impression hadn't sunk in, but the second surely had. ''Come in?''

The door clicked shut behind them and Dan dug through the cupboard for the two little containers, oblivious of the wandering eyes that curiously observed the messy surfaces and him. He missed how they lingered first on the scattered papers, then - on the neat shelf, and then - on him, watching with eyes that could caress gently if given the physicality of fingers.

''You write?''

''What gave it away?'' he asked, a hint of sarcasm finally appearing as Dan liked it best. After all, he wrote so many characters, why wouldn't he be able to write himself as well? Every action and reaction of his was in his hands alone. To create a fun, mildly sarcastic being was better that letting the life decide of how bleak to make him.

A fond, light laughter was the only answer and Phil accepted the two shakers gladly when handed them “Must've been the tired eyes,” to which Dan only rolled his.

A low grumble interrupted the next words forming on his lips, dark eyes narrowing in mild annoyance at nothing else but his own body at that moment. Why was reality so stubborn? Why couldn't he chose everything of his own and make brilliance out of his vague existence? Why was a good dialogue formed have to be interrupted so rudely?

''Do you want to have dinner with me?'' a mildly rushed suggestion, followed by the slightest pink tint on pale cheeks and Dan felt taken aback at the suggestion for a second before shooting back ''My, usually they only offer a quick drink.''

Phil arched his brow, unsure how to answer, but there was no sign of judgement in the features. Dan let the softness of the other man's, ironically, fairly angular features pour into his own being once more and he almost felt like resurfacing.

Almost.

''I'd love to, thank you.''

''I'll knock on your door when it's done, neighbour?''

''Sure. And it's Dan.''

''Okay, Dan.''

=====

Though their personalities had seemed a complete contradiction at first glance, Dan had to admit he'd been mistaken as soon as he walked into Phil's apartment later that evening. Boxes, half of them open, were strewn across the apartment, and he could spy a half-hearted attempt of putting things away that had been abandoned somewhere after the first one had been fully emptied.

Something about the place displayed a chaos of mind, just like his own, and the little figurines on the only filled shelf and a shirt with Captain America shield thrown over the back of a chair showed similar interests.

One thing he couldn't fathom, however, were the two giant lights and a tripod with a camera placed facing the bedroom door.

Seated by the table, where he'd been directed, Dan gave the other man a questioning look with a knowing smirk bowing his lips, when the other took a pause to inhale in between the words of apologising for the simplicity of the meal.

''What?--'' Phil flushed bright red ''Oh my god!-- It's not what you think!''

''It's you who thought of it,'' Dan leaned his elbow on the table, leaning onto it more, darkness of eyes more liquid chocolate than solid, proving his mischievous attention that always arrived as the sun began to set. “I'm just worried that this,” he motioned at the bottle of wine that he'd brought along as a housewarming gift of a kind (And honestly, an unfortunate habit of his own; he'd left dark glass untouched by his lips, no liquors stinging his throat for days now and he craved the feeling.) ''Might turn into something that I would rather keep off the internet.'' He watched as red turned to crimson, and he had to bite his tongue not to speak his mind too freely, not yet.

''I make films!!'' Phil finally managed out, bringing his arms up only to knock a stray book off the edge of the shelf and effectively dropping it right onto his foot.

Deadpanning, Dan watched the other man jump around. If only he could tell what was that prompted him to engage with this clearly awkward and disastrous human being.

''Do I dare to ask about your film? Or will I regret my curious small talk?''

''You're a terrible neighbour,'' he swore that Phil had uttered under his breath once the initial pain had subsided and the book had be gracelessly tossed onto the sofa (Dan had allowed himself a soft chuckle to that and earnt a smile from his new neighbour) ''Independent film, I have a new crew, that's why I moved to London.''

''No pornography then?''

''No pornography.''

''What a pity.''

''You're terrible.''

This time it wasn't hushed.

=====

The evening had gone surprisingly well, the food consumed alongside the glasses of wine and information shared. When Dan had finally, briefly explained more about his success, there'd been the initial shock that soon was exchanged by cheekiness and inquiries about the general details of the field.

Such as whether the sleep was absolutely abolished, souls sold to the devil to be able to write throughout days and nights without any rest.

''You know, earlier, when I saw you first, I had to rationalise that zombies aren't proven to be real yet,'' Phil, giddy from the alcohol, pointed a finger at Dan, making the latter scrunch up his face briefly.

''Shut up, I hadn't slept for two days.''

''That's what I mean.''

''....Shut up.''

''For a bestselling author, I would expect more eloquent answers coming from you.''

''You're not worthy of my articulate answers.''

''Touche.''

Fond chuckles exchanged, the two fell into a surprisingly easy silence, each holding onto a glass that was definitely meant for another drink, but neither truly had cared about it.

“I wish Mark was here,” After a moment of thought, leaned back comfortably in one corner of the sofa, Phil spoke, nursing the glass in his hands, staring off into space.

“Who?” Suddenly Dan's voice fell hushed; the way the other had spoken felt tender and full of affection.

''He's my best friend,'' Phil elaborated without acknowledging the sudden volume change of Dan's voice. (It had taken half a glass to bring the loudness out, an absolute difference from when they had first met.) Dan observed the other man, whose gaze was unseeing as he stared at a spot across the room and there was something dark about the sudden acknowledgement of this best friend, suddenly mentioned.

Suddenly blue eyes met brown and it felt like Dan's mind would short-circuit, the intensity of the gaze, somewhere deep within pleading, hitting him, tingling his chest and his fingertips. Pen and paper had been left behind in his apartment, and his long limbs felt heavy and useless without his tools. He saw love, he saw trust, he saw the things he'd never truly seen.

He felt it, wanted to describe it and yet he never truly got the real message hidden within.

None of that was truly for him, Dan was sure, and yet it made him ache to not lose the sensation, to incorporate it into his works which didn't feel worthy anymore. His descriptions; the hours spent mulling over the correct words and metaphors to explain it. Now it was right there, within his reach.

The true feelings that he'd tried to fake for so long.

''He would like you. I know I do,'' he was drawn out of his thoughts by those words.

Though he should've felt warm and flattered by what had been said, the only thing he felt was nausea and headache forming just above his brow.

“I'm sure,” words fell flat and he rubbed his face.

“Oh, I've kept you here all evening!” Phil jumped a little at the notion then and there. It was a sudden change, as if someone covering out of the harm's way almost, but the tension unraveled and dissipated into the thin air even before Dan's absent mind could latch onto it.

“Don't worry about it,” Dan offered a small smile, but the glass, for once not entirely emptied, was set aside, ''Well, the way you look now, I feel like I should worry,'' a hand rested upon his shoulder, lightly and Dan accepted the stability that the single touch offered as he rose from his seat. There was clearly a growing affection within his chest, but he blamed it on the Rosette; he often found attachment through the alcohol and it was usually quickly gone once the soberness returned once again.

“I think I should head back now,” With a slight resolve in his tone, Dan said, once he felt stable enough on his feet, he offered a smile to his new acquaintance “Welcome to your new home.”

Once again, something flickered behind those azure sea eyes, “Good night.”

=====

Dan felt warmer than he ever had, whenever he was around Phil, who had somehow, slowly, become his friend. A concept that had felt perfectly foreign to Dan for what felt like decades now.

There were good days, a bottle of wine emptied with a good meal and a movie watched (At the end of which Phil would critique and commend the plot and techniques used in it and Dan would always point out the lack of time and the plot holes).

There were days less so, when either hadn't had the greatest day (And yet Phil was always the one to brighten the mood eventually, though he always ended up giving credit to Dan, thanking him in the most wholehearted manner he'd seen anyone do).

And there were days that were a clouded mystery, when Phil would be an absent shadow in his memory, not there behind the locked door though Dan had been sure that Phil had never left the apartment. Those had become the days Dan was the most gone; absolutely swallowed by the creatures within his fantasy and the endless smoke that made his chest clench and throat burn. It was as if the missing time of other days piled into one and sometimes he found himself having lost two days without a notice.

It was at the end of a day as such, where his fingers found safety pressing down the piano keys rather than gripping the pen. A melody filled the smoke-white air, soft as the manner of playing. His thoughts, exhausted from the fantasy, began to acquire bits of real thoughts. The boring things in life;

There were bills to pay.

There was the editor who had left several voice mails.

There were tingling need in his stomach.

And his fridge was begging to be filled once more.

The song flowed and his eyes were shut, the hair tickling his forehead as he scrunched up his face as he hit a wrong note. He thought of real things and how the world had formed around him. It had light, it had more colour now, it had something entirely unexpected.

It had longing.

His heart felt like a heavy flutter at first, but he breathed in, caught the lingering smoke, coughed.

He had to get out.

=====

Sweaty chest pressed against his own, hot lips restricting him from catching a breath. Fingers were digging into his wrists above his head and his heart was pumping with lustful excitement.

He released a muffled moan, friction against sensitive skin turning his mind blank for once and he allowed himself to gracelessly beg. Passion was fulfillment, where the lust had achieved the goal, where testosterone and musk could be tasted along with the salty sweat.

Fingernails scratched at the skin, feeling the defined muscles tense and relax and as with climax, the words of adoration escaped him, half-whispered.

It was another lie, another fantasy to live for.

He could hear the tunes of a familiar song through the wall as he fell asleep that night, comforted by the sound and the peace of being left alone in his chaos once again.

#myfanfic #phanfiction #phanfic #author!Dan #filmmaker!Phil #au

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miami-web-designer · 5 years

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The 10 Biggest Organizing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them!

New Post has been published on http://miamiwebdesignbyniva.com/index.php/2019/06/05/the-10-biggest-organizing-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/

The 10 Biggest Organizing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them!

Many people want to get organized but don’t know how to take the first step. Unfortunately, the first step many of them take is the wrong step! Here are the ten biggest mistakes that would-be organizers make, and how to avoid them.

1. Waiting for a large block of available time

Many disorganized people say that they will get organized when they have a completely free weekend, or when they can take a few days off from work. There are several problems with this approach. One is that it postpones getting started. Another is that higher priority tasks always crop up, and the seemingly free block of time rarely ends up being used exclusively for organizing. Spending a full weekend organizing can be exhausting! It’s better to start in small increments — an evening here, a few weekend hours there. Some organizing tasks can even be completed while watching television, or waiting for the laundry to finish. The important thing is to get started!

2. Being discouraged by the big picture

Many people want to get organized but feel overwhelmed by the size of their organizing problem. They don’t know where to start, so they don’t start at all. The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” There are no shortcuts to organizing. Decide where you are going to start – pick one cabinet, or one section of a room, or one closet – and just start!

3. Hiding clutter in the closet

In an effort to make one’s home presentable to guests, many people deal with clutter by shoving it into a shopping bag and hiding it in the closet. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as it is just a short-term fix. It is important to take those shopping bags out of the closet after the guests leave and make decisions about the contents. Otherwise you will have trouble locating those items when you need to find them again, and you may also be giving prime storage space to many things you don’t need to keep.

4. Buying organizing products first

Stores like The Container Store and Bed, Bath and Beyond are full of great organizing products. However, it is important to first measure how much stuff needs to be stored. Start by sorting out the different types of items to be organized, and getting rid of the items you no longer need to keep. Next decide how you are going to organize the items, and where you are going to keep them. Only then are you ready to start considering organizing products.

5. Reading multiple organizing books

In this self-help culture, there is no shortage of books on organizing In their desperation to get organized, many people buy several of these books. However, since each organizer has his or her own methodology, reading several books without getting started will only be confusing. It is better to read one book and follow that author’s approach to get organized. Then, if there are aspects of that system that aren’t working well for you, you can consult additional books to find other ideas. Another alternative is to hire a professional organizer, who will work with you to come up with an organizing system custom-tailored for you.

6. Putting things in storage

The self-storage industry grossed over $20 billion in this country in 2007, and one out of every 10 households in the U.S. currently rents a self-storage unit. Yes, there are situations in which it is quite appropriate to rent a storage unit. However, many people opt for a storage unit as an alternative to making decisions about their possessions. After you have lived without your stored items for a year, you can safely say that these are not items that are useful to you. Instead of wasting your money storing them, make decisions about them now.

7. Asking the wrong person for help

Organizing can go faster and be more enjoyable if you have company. However, no matter how enthusiastic your friends or family members are about helping you, they may be too emotionally involved in your clutter situation to be objective. The last thing you need to hear is, “I can’t believe you let things get this bad!” or “You’re just like your father; he could never throw anything away either!” You’ll find the organizing process easier and far more productive if you work with a professional organizer.

8. Getting distracted from decision-making

Clutter, it has been said, is the result of postponed decisions. The process of getting organized is thus one of decision-making. However, some people get distracted from making decisions and start reading through unread papers or going down memory lane while reviewing photo albums. It is important to stay focused while organizing. Items that need detailed review in order for decisions to be made should be put aside in a “Review” pile and dealt with at another time.

9. Not involving the rest of your household

The habits of the other members of your household are very likely contributing to your home’s organizing issues. Furthermore, items that are used by everyone (such as kitchen and bathroom supplies, CDs and DVDs) need to be organized in a way that everyone can find them. Make sure that you have the cooperation of everyone in your household in making your organizing decisions.

10. Keeping something “just in case”

We all know the frustration of throwing something away and then regretting it later because you suddenly find the perfect use for it. To compensate, we then save too many items, “just in case”. However, the amount of storage space taken up by those “just in case” items – which will most likely never be used again — far outweighs the inconvenience of having to rebuy things that we have discarded in error. Unless you can think of a use for something right now, let it go.

I hope this article will prevent you from going down the wrong path when you get ready to organize. Happy sorting!

Source by Sharon Lowenheim

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nancygduarteus · 5 years

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Everything Is a Subscription Now

I’m a person with a toilet-paper subscription. I bought it through my Amazon Prime subscription: Every few months, an embarrassing box of toilet paper arrives at my apartment, at which point I’m charged around $30, which includes the 5 percent savings the retailer awarded me to secure my toilet-paper business in perpetuity.

The same thing happens when the pet-supply company sends me two bags of dog food every six weeks, or when Adobe lets me use Photoshop for another month. Instead of CDs and DVDs, Netflix and Apple Music grant me access to movies and music on a rolling basis. A cosmetics retailer sends me beauty-product samples every month. I never use them, but still pay $10 each time.

For most of American consumer history, subscriptions were the province of magazines, cable, and other media: You paid an annual fee, and news and entertainment organizations gave you their new work as it became available. But as digital payment technology has improved and people look for ways to navigate stress, stagnant wages, and online shopping’s near-infinite purchase choices, the value proposition of subscriptions have changed. So too have the kinds of products people can subscribe to.

Today, things that can routinely show up to your doorstep include: misshapen vegetables, personalized vitamin cocktails, dog toys, a vast wardrobe of clothing and accessories, and even a sofa. In a consumer market of disposable fast fashion and cheap assemble-at-home furniture, the idea of wasting less while getting to use nicer, higher-quality things for a monthly fee is a compelling sell. But what’s harder to predict is what might be lost when the effort to buy less stuff turns into renting huge swathes of your daily life.

A subscription, at its base, is simply a schedule of recurring fees that gives consumers continual access to a good or service. A car lease is a subscription, but so is your gym membership and the way you use Microsoft Office. Subscription creep dates to at least 2007, when Amazon launched Subscribe & Save, a service that lets shoppers pre-authorize periodic charges for thousands of consumable goods like sandwich bags or face wash (or toilet paper), usually at a slight discount over individual purchases. Then came Birchbox in 2010, which provides women with miniature portions of beauty products on a monthly basis for $15. At its peak, the company was valued at more than $500 million.

Both Amazon’s and Birchbox’s models have been widely copied, and their success underscores subscriptions’ appeal to businesses and consumers alike, according to Uptal Dholakia, a marketing professor at Rice University. “The pain of payment and the friction of how a person is going to pay is totally gone,” he says. Consumers receive things they need or want without having to make any decisions, and that creates more stable and predictable revenue streams for the businesses they patronize.

The pitch for Feather, a two-year-old startup that lets consumers borrow suites of furniture for their apartments, sounds a little dystopian. “We don’t own our apartments. We don’t own our cars. We don't even own movies anymore. So why own your furniture?” the company asks on its website. It isn’t that Feather is wrong; Millennials are less likely to own homes and cars than their parents were at the same age, and streaming services dominate entertainment so thoroughly that Best Buy has largely phased out CDs in its stores. But in the face of all that instability, don’t you at least want your sofa to be yours? Feather says the new normal is “defined by freedom and flexibility.” But generational precarity is hardly an exciting lifestyle.

Jay Reno, Feather’s founder and CEO, is realistic about the frequently less-exciting circumstances of sofa rental; he’s moved almost a dozen times himself. “Most people in our consumer demographic are looking for disposable furniture,” he explains. “Your life is changing constantly, you’re moving apartments, you have a different layout in each apartment and different furniture needs.” The company currently operates in New York and San Francisco, two hyper-expensive cities where young, often affluent people tend to bounce between apartments and roommate configurations. The furniture they need might change pretty quickly, along with the rest of their lives. Although Feather offers terms as short as three months, Reno says that most of its customers rent for a full year—the length of an apartment lease.

Rent-to-own businesses have a notoriously predatory history with America’s working poor, but But Reno claims Feather is trying to apply a less vampiric approach to what can be a practical service for apartment-dwellers in unpredictable stages of their lives. Traditional rent-to-own models have been accused of profiting off of their customers’ desperation, not their desire for flexibility. According to Reno, Feather is targeting educated, middle-class consumers who can probably qualify for in-store financing at West Elm—the same type of people who might have been proudly buying a new dinette set for their young family at Havertys in the 1980s. But back then, those shoppers could expect their dining area to be the same size for the foreseeable future.

If furniture subscriptions might help consumers delay a purchase decision that feels too permanent to handle, Rent The Runway might help shoppers stop making purchases that have gotten too easy. The dizzying variety offered by online shopping and the pressure to look great on social media create an intense incentive for women to continually expand their wardrobes, which can strain both budgets and the physical limits of one’s closet. Rent The Runway opened in 2009 to rent special-occasion dresses, but in 2015, it launched a $159-per-month service that gives subscribers access to a rotating array of everyday clothing. Users can swap out for new pieces when they’re done or keep them for an extra fee.

The same year Rent The Runway’s subscription service launched, the average American consumer purchased 65 pieces of clothing, even though most people use relatively little of their wardrobe. Surveys estimate that only 20 percent of people’s clothing sees the light of day with any regularity. Most individual pieces are only worn a handful of times before being discarded, usually into landfills. At the same time, super-cheap clothing is more omnipresent than ever, which can make it seem like a smart, budget-conscious choice for refreshing a seasonal wardrobe or flexing on Instagram.

In theory, a wardrobe subscription gives people access to the variety that modern life demands, in addition to the kind of high-end clothing that it would be impossible for most people to wear every day. “We used to be a business that was more about the cherry on top of the sundae because it was something super special,” says Anushka Salinas, Rent The Runway’s chief revenue officer. “Now people are using us as a utility.”

But along with the advantages of variety or quality comes a downside. Whether or not a subscription to breakfast smoothies or Reformation dresses or mattresses makes sense depends on individual consumer circumstances, which Dholakia says people are bad at evaluating on their own. “You tend to overestimate how much you will consume,” he explains. When signing up for meal kit delivery, you might tell yourself you’ll cook three times a week, when actually once or twice is more realistic. In the case of durable goods, Dholakia says, the tradeoff is in the long game: “The consumer pays less, but they don’t get to own the asset and benefit from it.”

Spending $150 per month to lease three different sets of bedroom furniture in three different apartments might give you flexibility, but at the end of those three years, you’ve spent $5,400 and still don’t own any bedroom furniture.

Consumers also seem to be bad at estimating how much they spend on subscriptions. One survey found that when asked to guess their monthly spend on subscription services, Americans’ first guess was around one third of their actual output. Because people aren’t continuously asked to opt in, it can be easy for those who don’t have to pay stringent attention to their monthly budgets to lose track of what’s being siphoned off. Dholakia says that businesses profit from this disregard. “You have to go and revisit all your subscriptions as a consumer every month, or at least every quarter at a minimum,” he explains. He also urges consumers to look carefully at what companies require to cancel service. If a particular program’s terms make it onerous to opt out, that’s a red flag that subscribing may be a bad deal in general.

Dholakia is careful to point out that in companies where subscriptions work, it’s generally because they’re providing a service that people actually want or need, not because the revenue model itself is a golden ticket. Birchbox, one of the early darlings of the subscription economy, has had some well-publicized growth and revenue struggles in recent years as people tired of paying to receive a different mini mascara every month. Blue Apron, which has had its subscription meal kits copied by numerous competitors, had more than a million subscribers in early 2017; by 2018, that number had dropped to fewer than 800,000.

Both Feather and Rent The Runway Unlimited think they have identified places in which the things people are supposed to own don’t really line up with the ways they have to live their lives: A lot of people rent their homes for a lot longer now, and the internet speeds up trend cycles and keeps permanent records of every outfit you’ve ever been photographed in. Owning things is great, but the constant pressure to shop and acquire—and especially to do so beyond one’s means as a signal of success—is wasteful of both material resources and money. For some, buying flexibility and novelty without commitment or unnecessary waste might be worth more than an IKEA sofa or a bunch of Zara clothes.

Rental furniture and wardrobing services remain a bandage on a bullet wound; they can’t address the reasons that so many people who might have lived comfortable, middle-class lives a few decades ago now don’t know where they’ll be living next year. Still, if you’re one of the many people who find themselves squeezed by circumstance, at least there’s probably a company out there willing to meet you where you are.

“Every business owner in every industry has thought about or is thinking about if subscription makes sense for their products and services,” says Dholakia. “We’re going to see subscription in pretty much everything.”

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/how-amazon-helped-turn-daily-life-subscription/588526/?utm_source=feed

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ionecoffman · 5 years

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Everything Is a Subscription Now

Article source here:The Atlantic

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justfollowmyhansel · 6 years

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October 17th -- Lift Up Your Hands

I woke up in the hotel feeling very calm. Relaxed even for what felt like the first time in a long time. Perhaps it was being able to take an extended bath in the ridiculous sized tub. Or perhaps it was the idea that I had absolutely nothing that I had to do that day besides getting to the show. The more I thought about it, it was probably more that than anything else. Besides at this point, most of the pressure to actually do something or the nervousness of just what the show would be had passed. There was still excitement, of course, but I’d be able to enjoy myself in a different way than I had up until that point at tonight’s show having already seen the staging from the same relative angle.

My only bit of shopping that I had set aside for the day was that I had wanted to try out the 100 Yen store. Dollar stores in the US have long been a favourite of mine for the weird things you can find and the way it makes it relatively easy to try new things. Possibly not the best quality things, but enough to give an idea of whether or not it’s worth investing more money into later.

After eating the cereal I had ordered to my room the previous night and armed with the instructions given to me by the lady working the lobby the previous night, I set out.

I got as far as the train station before something went sideways. Of course, like a lot of times getting turned around, I didn’t realize that I had gotten turned around until I was very turned around.

I stopped into a grocery store thinking that it might have been the 100 Yen store I was seeking. It wasn’t, but it did allow for some interesting comparison shopping to be done – food seemed to cost a little less overall in Japan than in the US, but for some reason boxed hair dye was way more expensive. I wondered if it was because less people in Japan dyed their hair than in the US. I only bought a can of coffee there, having passed up most of the other things as either a little too expensive for what I wanted to buy at the time or, more often, too big for what I could carry, eat, or take back with me.

I set off again, passing a few shops, but mostly restaurants and office buildings. On the way up, I had passed every landmark specifically outlined on the map provided by the hotel – the laundromat, the boxed lunch shop, the convenience store – and yet, even though the relative location between places seemed greater in reality than it did on paper, I began to have the sneaking suspicion that I should have hit the 100 Yen store by now…. Unfortunately not knowing what it was called or what the building looked like, I couldn’t look it up on my Google Map.

As the area started to look less and less…. populated (the shops started being further apart and more suburban than urban, not that it wasn’t populated per se), I turned around and stopped into a pet shop I had passed earlier. I had thought it was funny that while John was going to go combine two things I love (dogs and coffee), I was also combining them. Just… in a slightly more conventional sense than I would have thought I’d do in Japan.

In the pet store, much like the grocery store, I photo’d things that were interesting to me, packaging I liked, and comparisons between the products I’d get in the US and the versions that I could get in Japan including, surprisingly, the exact type of dog food I feed my dog only with a slightly more kawaii packaging.

Before I left, I asked the attractive man behind the desk how to get back to the train station listed on the map from the hotel. I wasn’t sure if I was still going to try for the 100 Yen store or not, but either way, I needed to get back to some place I knew before I could get back to the hotel, reconfigure my stuff (AGAIN), and head to the show. And possibly get something to eat….

On my way back to the train station, I saw a sign plastered to the side of one of the buildings, very visibly reading “DVDS”, “BOOKS”, “MUSIC” in the same big red letters on yellow background you might see on an American going-out-of- business sign. I followed the big red arrow to the shop front, feeling more confident that I was closer to being on my way again than I had been moments before. Maybe this would finally be the place I’d be able to get some Yuri!!! on Ice toys for myself (and as gifts for Risa) or maybe this would be the place I could finally buy some Pokemon things for Kelly since she had given me some money in advance specifically for those.

I looked through the shelves and bins of boxed and loose toys; no Yuri!!!, no Pokemon, but I did find a Freddie Mercury action figure. At around $40, he was one of the cheaper action figures I’d ever seen for Freddie; my favourite being one that topped out between $200 and $400 and featured the multi-talented signer in one of his black and white harlequin outfits. The one I had just found featured the outfit he wore at Queen’s last show at Knebworth Stadium and had an additional face or two that could be swapped out for the one he currently had on. That detail alone seemed like something that would have made Freddie proud to have the figure bear his image, but it was really how well it was rendered that sold the toy for me. I carried him around with me as I checked out the rest of the store looking at the smaller selections of DVDs and CDs and the large library on the other side of the division. (A division that beeped loudly in both directions when I carried the spider wrapped Freddie Mercury over it’s magnetized lines.)

After briefly browsing the selection of manga books, I went up to the checkout desk and using Google Translate, asked the shop lady if the store had anything for Yuri!!! on Ice. She searched in her database and found nothing specifically for Yuri!!!, but went to the DVD section anyway to doublecheck. After the brief, fruitless search, she told me that any figures they might have would be with the open stocked/unboxed figures on the back wall. I went and looked again before bringing up my Freddie and checking out. Before I left, I double checked that I was still on the right path since I had made an unscheduled stop. Initially, I had thought the store was something akin to f.y.e. or Borders (before they closed), but after I got back and showed Miya the receipt, I learned that it was something closer to a Vintage Stock. So not totally wrong, but not the closest.

I would have been find getting around Osaka if one of two things had happened: 1. if my copy of Google Maps updated quicker/more accurately so that I actually knew where I was and what direction I was going at a given time or 2. had there been less streets laid on diagonally. Unfortunately, as both things were out of my control, I ended up getting lost again somehow going in the same wrong direction that I had headed in to accidentally find the pet store.

Recognizing the sight of a large computer retailer not unlike Staples, I chose to get some help again. A sales man came up to me fairly quickly and I asked about how to get to the train station. He pointed me in the direction that I had been heading – that I came from – that I was 95% certain was wrong. I thanked him, went back out to the lobby to buy a bottle of coffee and use the restroom, and left.

Still lost and with a not-firm idea of how to get unlost, I found myself heading in a completely different direction yet again after I had thought I was going the right way. Realizing that I had no fucking clue where I was and that my maps were getting me more lost, not less, I went up to a police officer and, again using Google Translate, asked how to get back to the train station. He gave very loud, but relatively easy to understand instructions that made me appreciate that the urge to speak your own language louder and a little slower to people who don’t understand you isn’t just an annoying American thing.

Not long after and having passed another McDonald’s, I found my way actually at the train station for the first time that day. I entered into the first open air market that I had been to all trip. Unlike the ones that food bloggers and tourists who take conventional tourism trips (and not ones that travel thousands of miles to a foreign country to see a show in their own language…), this one had no noticeable odor of fish. To this day, I’m not sure if that’s something that people actually experience or if it’s a persistent rumor.

Instead, this market seemed to focus more on other foods. There were a couple of little shops/stalls that sold sushi, complete with their own refrigerator units and scales to properly preserve and measure the food; there were more little bakeries, though less fancy than the ones at Shibuchka; there were vendors with fashion-adjacent clothes; there was a stall selling mostly cute toys like you’d expect to see Pokemon things there, but there weren’t; and then there were a couple of booths like the one I finally stopped at: one that sold dried goods like seaweed wrapped rice crackers, coffee flavoured candies, and other shelf stable bulk goods. As funny as it sounds, it was like being home and going to my favourite Asian stores around me.

I picked up a pack of flower shaped seaweed covered rice crackers and a pack of the coffee candies. Now that I was back on track, I wanted to have a little bit of a snack just in case I wasn’t able to have time to stop off and have lunch somewhere. As I was checking out, the vendor and her male associate (possibly husband, possibly someone she had hired) made small talk with me, asking where I was from, what it was like, why I had come to Japan, how I was liking it so far…. They both thought I was very brave for having travelled so far on my own. I was happy with the comment, but like so many other times that people said that to me, I wasn’t fully certain what made taking this trip so brave. Japan wasn’t a dangerous country and it wasn’t all that hard to get around, even if I did have to ask for help a lot, usually people were willing and able to help me get to my next station….

As I was leaving, I asked how to get to the 100 Yen store. Since I was already at the station, I figured why not. Neither the main vendor nor her associate knew, but a man who happened to speak English was standing nearby and he gave me some good directions of how to get to where I wanted to be. I thanked everyone involved for helping, for finding someone who knew exactly where I wanted to go, and for having a pleasant conversation with me and headed on my way. I had barely made it three feet away when I heard someone yell, “Hey, you!”

It was so soft, for a second I thought I had imagined the call. I turned and the man who had given me the directions was making his way over to me like he didn’t want to lose track of me. He offered to show me exactly where I was going since he was headed that way and I accepted. It wasn’t too far away from the market, but for the first time since I left the hotel, I was firmly certain of where I was. I thanked him as he went on his way and slowly made my way up the stairs of the open, yet segmented by floors, building.

There were a few things that I had thought were interesting on the landings -- backpacks, luggage, a couple of sweaters...., but nothing that I was quite willing to pay the still relatively high prices for.

Eventually, I found my way upstairs and in front of a store called Dasico. I took a flyer that upon closer inspection turned out to be a job application and went inside.

I've mentioned before on this blog how much I love dollar stores, I find them very easy to look around and usually good places to try out new things, butt the quality of stuff at a Dasico is much higher than that of a Dollar Tree or a Family General.

I started off in the makeup aisle, looking for the things I'd need to complete my Look on Thursday. Namely, I needed eyeliner, but I also found an eye shadow palette, a few nail appliques, some clips for styling my Hedwig wigs, and other things that would have easily cost eight to twelve times more at the beauty supply shop I used to work for like a kabuki brush.

My hands already full, I moved on to the other aisles, picking up another beauty thing, briefly observing a new girl being trained, finding a Hello Kitty sleep mask.... By the time I made it halfway through the store my hands were so full, I was in danger of dropping my new possessions. A pair of school girls offered me their shopping basket and gratefully, I accepted.

By the end of the trip, I had racked up more than $40 worth of assorted things from beauty to stationary to the odd piece of clothing and had successfully asked a couple of questions (and understood the responses) without the aid of my translator app. A very patient shop girl answered my pointing at things and going “nan des ka?” I happily paid for my items, in cash not card, and started to head back downstairs, but before I got too far, I remembered that I had forgotten one of the things on my list -- hair gel.

I walked back into the store and went up to one of the people, asking if they sold anything that would make my hair stick up complete with gesturing what I had wanted. Together, we found a firm hair wax that should have had enough hold to get the look I wanted; possibly with a couple of applications, but it was what I had to work with (honey.)

I went back downstairs and took a closer look at some of the stores I had passed up on my way to Dasico. One of the levels was akin to a Kohl’s in that they sold a lot of shoes, semi-discounted luggage, sleeping bags, kitchen appliances, and other things you’d expect to find in your average suburban soccer mom’s home. The next level is a bit of a blur to me, something that I either didn’t retain or am misremembering as I had thought Dasico was on the 4th floor, but I can only come up with a brief layout for three....

The ground floor was more like the first two levels of the mall at the Hikarie -- mildly-to-a-lot more pricey than the other levels, but with a more serious attitude to it. Like this was a place you could go to get a suit you’d have tailored somewhere nice, but not quite upperend enough that they’d customize a suit from scratch for you. I bought...less on that level.

I exited that building and, on the recommendation of one of the women on the middle level, went into a shop across the street that specialized in socks. My search for the sexy stockings I had seen on Saturday was proving futile, but I wasn’t quite ready to give up looking. I browsed through the ample selection rejecting potential socks more on price or length than because of their very attractive patterns and textures. Once again, I paid and was on my way to the next stop -- the hotel.

Following the printed map that Hotel Grand Fine had given me the previous night, I realized that I hadn’t come up the right way at all when I went looking for the train station. I wasn’t sure exactly what the issue was yet, only that there was one and that if I could remember these sights for the next few hours, I’d be better off than if I didn’t.

Putting in the hotel as my destination again, I used a combination of Google Maps and printed map to wander back to the hotel. I took more time than I had necessarily wanted to, but I arrived and with the show being at seven that evening, still had four hours to get there (and two, if I wanted to be early.) On my way back, I texted Miya asking for specific translations of a couple of phrases. I had decided that even though I wouldn’t likely get to meet either actor in person and that the drawings weren't finished, I still wanted to try. After all, given that most of my friends at this point had met John, the likely worst response I’d get would be no response. Which is exactly the same thing I’d have if I didn’t try at all.

I retrieved my key from the front desk, went upstairs, quickly changed from my Hedwig Japan t-shirt to my RENT one, and headed out again.

The path to the train station this time was different than it had been this morning -- a sooner turn onto a wide boulevard, a longer straight forward walk before a turn.... I thought I must have missed the train station entrance again since Google Maps can be very imprecise as to where the entrances are... I stopped into a convenience store and asked one of the ladies running it where the stop I was looking for was. She directed me to the woman who ran the shop and knew a little more English than she did and I was pointed in the same direction I had been going, only a few more blocks up.

I thanked them and found the entrance, quickly getting on the first train I needed to go to the show.

As it turned out, that would be one of the last stops I actually fully understood how to get from point A (the station) to point B (the next station.) The one I arrived at had far less clear signage. I ended up asking a janitor how to get to the platform my paperwork indicated I needed. She brought me up to the station master, who printed me another set of maps, which provided me with yet another set of directions on how to get where I was going. So far, four people, four sets of directions, and a very, very confused Hansel.

After what felt like a lifetime, probably mine, I was on the right path again. At least for a little while. At the next station, I was faced with the same problem I had had in Tokyo - two platforms that left from the same level, but across from each other, were called the same thing. I hopped on one, put the Osaka-jo Hall into my maps app, and waited to see what happened next. The next station listed was wrong, which I found out pretty immediately, but Google Maps had been wrong before on that front; usually not showing a “smaller” stop along the way of the one I actually needed to go to. I zoomed out to see what direction my blue indicator dot was going in relation to the map and sure enough, it was the exact wrong way. I set an alarm for the time the show was supposed to start labeled ‘You’ve Missed the Show’ because at this point, it felt like I wouldn’t get there until 8. At the next station, I hopped off and then hopped onto the correct train, going past my origin spot and then arriving at the next station.

The next station might have been the entirety of Utah, it was so big. I followed the signs as far as I could before stopping to ask someone where I should be going. He pointed me underground and said to follow the green signs for the JR Line since that’s the one I’d be taking to Osaka-jo and that it might be a lot of walking, but to keep following the signs. So I did and after passing two McDonald’s, a couple of convenience stores, and more people than I’d see in an average week, I finally found the stop I needed. I wondered, not for the first time, if there was another train that might have taken me closer to my next stop.

The train arrived and I felt like I had finally reached where I was supposed to be. The signage said something along the lines of Osaka-jo Square and after heading towards the signs that pointed in the direction of Osaka-jo Hall, I started hearing a person over a loud speaker directing members of the crowd there to see Hedwig to go a specific direction. I knew enough Japanese to be certain that this was about Hedwig and that it wasn’t a misunderstanding on my part so I followed the signs and the speakers to what appeared to be a large, possibly outdoors, stadium. Seeing the size of it, I was all the more glad that Miya had managed to upgrade my ticket from second balcony, Row M to the first floor.

I confidentially walked up the two or more flights of sturdy bleach-white stone and handed my ticket over to the man taking tickets. He looked at it and said “Standard ticket?” “Hai.” “You need to be...over there.” and pointed vaguely in the direction I had come from.

I thought perhaps I had gone too far around the building in my search for a small line and so passing back around the trailers and buses that had brought the equipment from Tokyo to Osaka, I went more towards the front of the arena and showed my ticket off again to a different man directing foot traffic. He told me that yes, I was at Osaka-jo and yes, there would be a version of Hedwig viewable here, but where I needed to be was NHK Osaka Hall, the public broadcaster, as that’s where the actual performance would be. In that moment, I remembered vaguely Miya forewarning me that there were two different places called Osaka Hall and that I needed to be careful which one I went to.

I asked how far I was from where I needed to be and by foot, I was still twenty minutes away. I looked at my phone for the time. I still had a little over an hour and a half to get there, but given my luck? And how quickly I’d been getting places? I hailed a taxi.

The taxi driver was almost as confused as everyone else had been along the way about which Osaka Hall I needed to be at, but after a few moments, we understood each other and were on our way. It was maybe a five minute drive from Osaka-jo Hall to NHK and cost close to $10, but the expense was worth the sudden certainty that I was actually back on track. Seeing a slew of other Hedheads there certainly confirmed this.

I got into the ever expanding line, my heart beating out of my chest like it hadn’t since the last time I saw Hedwig, but worse. What if I showed the drawings to the usher and she wanted me to come back stage? What would I even say? Would I actually be able to manage words or would it be like the time I briefly met Anthony Rapp and was only able to smile and nod along to what my mother said I had liked about his career? And why hadn’t they opened the doors? It was time, wasn’t it?

In my attempt to not fidget too hard while waiting in line, I took off my sweater and redrew the silver and gold Hedwig temporary tattoo that I had done for the last show in Tokyo. Last show in Tokyo, last show in Japan for 2017, what really was the difference?

Not for the first time since arriving in Japan, I started to sort of regret not dressing up more. Not cosplaying the show like I had thought I was going to for two years before I actually had the chance to see it live. Of course, so many of the cosplayers here had much better costumes than the ones I had thus far been able to put together, but should I have tried harder? In the back of my mind, I remembered that part of the reason for not cosplaying was that I wanted to meet John as a version of myself and not a version of Hedwig. He’d met thousands of Hedwigs, and Yitzhaks, but tended to remember meeting people outside of their makeup more. And the other reason was that I wasn’t sure I’d want the attention it would attract being one of the taller people in the crowd to begin with and then wearing Hedwig’s tall red boots from Tear Me Down or her black ones from The Origin of Love and Angry Inch.

I took out my ticket for the fourth or fifth time that day, reconfirming that I did in fact still have it, that it did look like a real ticket and that someone hadn’t tried to pull the wool over Miya, or my, eyes.

And eventually, late compared to the Tokyo shows, the doors opened to allow the crowd to enter.

I picked up more flyers for HtTtGaP, placing them carefully with the other flyers handed out by the theater in my bag before heading to the bathroom to compose myself again.

I found my seat by myself, which considering my absolute failure at finding things earlier in the day seemed like an important enough victory. And then moments later, I found it again when it occurred to me that I had chosen a seat too far back and that I actually should be about five rows ahead of where I was presently seated.

I played around on my phone for a few minutes trying to decide whether or not I actually wanted to give over the drawings that I had worked on the last time two years ago and hadn’t ever finished. The ones that I had been planning on finishing, putting on a t-shirt or two, and wearing to the National Tour had John or one of the other Hedwigs I had loved from Broadway been performing. The ones that before printing on a spur of the moment, “oh look, I have these to go along with the other Hedwig drawing I’ve done,” had forgotten about almost completely in the excitement of actually Going and seeing John as Hedwig.

I pulled out the small spiral notebook that I had brought with me to the theatre and a purple pen. It took me two tries to get his name to be actually legible, but a note was written (in English, with his name in Japanese written along side his name in English.) Afterwards, I quickly translated and copied a note to Ataru basically saying that I thought her performance was incredible and that it was such a pleasure being able to see her these past few times in Japan. Later, when I showed the pictures I had taken of the notes to Miya, she said the version of ‘perform’ that I had used was more like the one an instructor might have used with Ataru than a regular fan, but that it should show between her note and John’s that I wasn’t a native speaker and simply meant to give a compliment to her.

I stood up and very nervously headed towards one of the ushers at the back of the venue. It looked to me more like my high school’s (very nice) performance auditorium than one that I would expect to see what’s basically a rock concert in. It honestly looked more like the sort of concert hall you’d see on PBS while watching a performance of a modern composer than one that you’d expect to see Blondie or The Ramones at.

I tried to explain what my intentions were with handing her the papers and the usher immediately goes ‘Ah! Giftu?’ which I assumed (and later confirmed) did mean gift. I showed her the notes and said that all of the drawings went to John and that Ataru’s note went to Ataru. I figured if John wanted to give her the Yitzhak one, that would be amazing, but I wanted him to see all three of them before they were given to the people actually playing the characters. She asked for my name and I pointed to where I had signed on John’s note ‘H. Smyth.’ It hadn’t occurred to me when I picked the name how semi-awkward it might be to actually introduce myself to John as ‘Hansel’. So for now.... I was ‘H. Smyth’, the name I thought I might go back one of these days and publish under.

I went back to my seat and was somehow more nervous than before I had given over the notes and the drawings. What if John wanted to have me thrown out for some reason? Or what if I had broken some unspoken rule by mentioning in my note that I had thought it was kind of funny that I had drawn these given that Hedwig’s opening costume had a gold Hello Kitty silhouette on her ass.

The show was later starting than any of the other ones thus far had been, going past the unedited, album version of Light My Fire and completely through one or two songs after it. I worried that maybe I had had something to do with delaying the show. Ridiculous, of course, but sometimes one likes to overestimate one’s importance to the world. A practice that is ironically very Hedwig in it’s execution....

The show, of course, still happened and was performed beautifully. Like I’d remark to Miya and Risa the next day, not once in five performances did John get the words to Wig in a Box correct and on most shows flubbed one or two of the other songs as well, but I didn’t care. The audience didn’t care. All that mattered was the energy in the room (which was amazing) and that the performers seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as the audience. My seat allowed me to see Ataru’s final outfit even closer than I had been able to on Saturday night because of where the venue doors were in relation. And that night provided more opportunities for improvs than on any of the other shows; one that basically involved John forgetting his line and Ataru improving spitting water in his face. (His reaction was hilarious and got them back exactly where they needed to be in terms of the script.)

Once again, Hedwig said ‘then love the front of me’ to Tommy with a delivery that would have made you think it was always there. And at the end of the show, they did the End of Love again, but this time slower since John’s voice was a little sore from performing so much lately. Slightly slowed down, it was still a wonderful song. And as John had recently announced it as a podcast, possibly one of the few times it would be performed live. After the song, John gave his final remarks, as usual, thanked the band and Ataru, his other half for these performances, asked if she had anything specifically that she wanted to say and then went into fully thanking everyone involved with the production including the director, the translator for the show, the translators for him in and around Japan, the artists involved with painting Hedwig’s capes, the animators for the new Origin of Love sequence, the costumers, and finally the people who helped him with his tuck. I was one of the few people who had laughed when John said that in English and one of the many who laughed when Ataru translated it moments later. It was a funny thing to have thanked someone for and made funnier by the just adorable way he said it. Cait and I agreed later when I told her about that moment that it was one of the things that made him so charming and reminded us both of David Bowie.

That alone was the moment I was still laughing about, standing outside the theatre part of the venue, and texting when I met a musician from Japan. He asked a little about my trip, how I had enjoyed it so far, why I had come over. I told him I was from Kansas City and he mentioned having been there with his band about a year ago. He asked if I had stopped off in his hometown and I said no, that because the bus ride was so long to get from Tokyo, I hadn’t had a chance to, but possibly the next time I came to Japan I would. And I truly meant it because despite having gotten significantly lost, I had enjoyed Japan immensely and even then wanted to visit again sometime when I had the time to be a little more prepared in my planning, possibly having learned more Japanese and definitely having pre-walked the majority of the streets I’d be travelling on. He and I chatted for a bit before walking out of the venue with his disinterested girlfriend hurrying him along.

The lobby that had been home to a few food court type options, had completely closed down. The only indicator that something had happened there that night being the few dozen people still milling about and the lights still being on in the main areas.

I walked out onto the street, headed in the direction of the train station to Hotel Grand Fine, and as I walked by NHK, blew a quick kiss up to the upper levels before seeking out food places in Google Maps.

I settled quickly on a soba noodles place. Miya had mentioned having them with her family a few days or weeks before I had come over and I couldn’t remember based on the name whether or not I’d ever had them. It was taking forever to find the restaurant that was allegedly so close to where I needed to be that I stopped into a 7/11, not having given up, but wanting to have at least something since I was quickly remembering that I hadn’t eaten anything all day. I picked out a few snacks and another cold coffee drink before buying two pork skewers at the front of the shop. The consistency in American convenience stores was something I found equally consistent here with the skewers tasting exactly like the one I had had the previous day before getting on the bus to Osaka, but without the other chicken thing that I had accidentally ordered first.

Newly fed, I headed out towards where the noodle place should have been again. And again, finding something else to eat instead.

The restaurant had a visual menu for their food as a window cling near the entrance to the shop. I took a photo of what I wanted and headed inside. The man behind the bar indicated that I could sit anywhere and I chose a spot towards the back, texting and going over the next day’s plans both as I waited for my food and as I ate.

I had finished maybe half of the food when they started to close up. I asked for a box and after another eternity spent trying to translate, gesture, pantomime, and otherwise indicate that I wanted to take the remainder of the food with me, was given one. I paid, left, and headed back to the hotel where I ordered another set of fries and cereal as I started to repack my bag to get ready to go. Afterwards, I took a quick shower and bath, having to cut down my enjoyment of the tub by at least half so that I would be semi-well rested for the return trip to Tokyo.

I set my alarm and went to sleep, both very happy with my trip so far and a little melancholy that this would be the last time this year that I’d see Hedwig performed live.bs

#travel diary #travel diary japan #japan day 7

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saorbrid-blog · 7 years

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Every Wednesday I share a review of a book. The book is chosen for me weekly and I cannot refuse the book, I have to read it and I have to review it. And I love doing it. A couple of weeks ago I was handed Marie Kondo’s ‘The Life Changing Magic of Tidying’. Considering it is, in its own way, a self-help book, it was an interesting one to review. Where normally I’d discuss themes, characters, writing styles and my personal feelings towards a book, this time I was a little stuck as there was nothing I was given to observe, analyse or discuss besides Marie Kondo’s actual method of tidying, so why not? I reviewed the book and the review can be found here, this post is my experience with the KonMari Method.

Prior to reading her book, I checked out goodreads to see what others had been saying about the book and I found some of the reviews hilarious – I too was slightly disturbed at the thoughts of my socks having self-esteem issues because I ball them up! As I began reading her book I felt a sense of anger towards Marie Kondo – her writing style was so persuasive. She was convinced her method was a gift from above and her confidence and assurance really bothered me initially, there’s something about self-assured people which just really gets to me. (I’m not jealous..)

Anyhoo, I began to find myself nodding in agreement to the parts where she discussed the different types of hoarders and how, even though you could spend an entire day cleaning and rearranging, the room/house will still end up messy within a week – for as long as I can remember I would spend hours or days working hard on perfecting my bedroom. Growing up we moved quite a bit, so I’ve tried perfecting at least 6 bedrooms of different shapes and sizes, but within a week my floor would be buried under a pile of clothing, shoes and books. Whether it was a box room (like the one I’m in now) or the huge one with the 7 wardrobes (I miss that room), I always found a way to make my bedroom look like the aftermath of a tornado.

Under my bed, before the gutting began.

Before beginning the transformation, Kondo recommends you imagine your ideal lifestyle (there’s a higher chance you’ll rebound if you don’t, apparently), once you’ve visualised that ask yourself why you want to live that kind of lifestyle and when you figure that one out ask yourself why a couple of more times.. “Before you start tidying, look at the lifestyle you aspire to and ask yourself: ‘Why do I want to tidy?’” So that’s exactly what I did. What kind of lifestyle did I want? A positive, relaxing and feminine one. Why? I want to meditate in a peaceful surrounding, somewhere I can light candles and read a book or listen to music and draw, somewhere I can blog and study and research, somewhere I can access my clothes/make up/jewellery without searching through bags and baskets and boxes. Why? To have my own space. Something just for me, a haven. Why? I’m independent and enjoy my own company, my mind tends to race

Clothes EVERYWHERE (never mind what was stowed away in the hot-press and attic)

quite a lot and as many of you who read this post will know, I can’t always control the ups and downs of my life, and really I need somewhere where I know I can wind down undisturbed, but also somewhere that can bring me joy – Then I looked around at the 3 metre x 3 metre room cluttered with everything from shoes older than my siblings to books older than my parents, as well as bags upon bags of clothes – with a decent amount still unworn and with their tags.

Basically, the KonMari method summed up is this: If it doesn’t make you happy, throw it out. Treat everything as an individual. Feel your clothing, feel your books, and unless it “sparks joy” and you firmly believe it will be used again in the future, discard it. Don’t just dump it though, you must thank it for serving its purpose in your life. I thought I’d feel ridiculous as I did this, but I knew much of what I got rid of would be going to charity so I thanked my old possessions for serving their purpose in my life and wished them luck in fulfilling another purpose in someone else’s life. I’ve read some fairly harsh opinions regarding the method but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Keep what makes you happy! By donating the rest you’re sure they will bring joy to someone else.

The KonMari Method begins with the visualisation, then categorising your belongings (sort by category, not location!). Belongings should be categorised and then sub-categorised if needed. The categories are as follows: Clothes, Books, Papers, Miscellaneous items and Sentimental items. Begin to clean by category, clothes first. My bedroom was littered with everything everywhere, I had clothes in bags, boxes, drawers, under my bed, stuffed under things and it was much the same for every other category, nothing really had its own designated area.

Things were left in the most random places.

I spent 4 hours powering through my all my belongings, putting any miscellaneous items I found in one bag to sort out later, same with any sentimental items, electricals, make up, etc. I was really surprised at how much I’d gotten despite the lack of music playing, which I would normally play loud enough for the neighbours to hear as I tidied my room but KonMari says no. Focus. By half 10 I was lightly banging my head against the wall as I sat under a pile of clothes, books and bags of rubbish, at 11:05 I managed to clear a path from my door to my bed – I wasn’t getting this done in one go.

I was working the day after I began to tidy, so I didn’t get the chance to continue it until half 6 that evening. Luckily, I got to start off with the papers which pretty much all went into the bag for rubbish. By this time, I had accumulated 2 large bags of bin-worthy rubbish and 3 bags of clothing donations. Next came the misc. items – Komono, as they are referred to – miscellaneous items are anything from CDs, DVDs, passports, stationary, to buttons, cables and make up. The exact range is as follows: This was the category I enjoyed the most, I had soooo many little knick knacks all over my room, some I kept out of guilt, some because I am a hoarder. A horrible, dirty hoarder. They all pretty much went bye-bye anyways. Sentimental items came next – this wasn’t so enjoyable. I won’t lie, a lot of the belongings I had in this category I kept. I can be quite a big softy at times and ended up spending over an hour just going through old photos, letters, notes and gifts and reminiscing. Swear I didn’t cry over how tiny my little brothers and little sister used to be! Though I kept most of what was in the ‘sentimental’ category, I organised them well in a photo album which I can now proudly display!

Finally, I got the chance to store my belongings (discard first, store later). I couldn’t get over how easily I found places for what I had left, now everything I own has its own home in my bedroom and, with exception from a few books, they’re all visible.

‘Appearance’ Area

My clothes, make up and jewellery are all stored within reach of each other – my ‘appearance’ area. My shoes are all together, my blog folders, iPad, laptop and printer are altogether at my desk – my ‘blog’ area.

blogging/shoe area

My books are stored under my bed in two drawers, one for study books (psychology, Italian and self-help books) and one for my Spirit & Destiny magazines, stationary and some novels. Sentimental items are stored on my top shelf, a few more books I’d use more often on the second and candles and cutesy decorative things on the bottom shelf. That’s it – that’s my bedroom.

Before & After

Before, I had clothes balled up on top of each other and about 5 items per hanger, I tried to designate drawers for sub-categories but I never stuck to them until now. Now I have one item of clothing per hanger, separate drawers for underwear, socks, pyjamas, tops and bottoms – and they all fit! Did you know you’re folding your clothes wrong? Yeah, Marie Kondo explains a really good theory as to why we stack them on top of each other when really, we should be stacking them beside each other vertically. It really is way easier to access them. Also, rid yourself of trackies. Loungewear is now considered taboo. Oh right.

Socks also have a specific way to be folded. Do you ball yours up? I did, I always have. Even when I had odd socks, I’d ball them all up together until I found their missing partner. Of course that’s the wrong way to do it though, to store your socks you should put them lying flat on top of each other and roll them from the top towards the toe, storing them upright to leave you with a little swirl (like a cinnamon bun!). Balling up your socks causes the elastic in them to stretch which is why sometimes they roll down. Kondo noted in her book how she longs to tell students she sees with their limpy socks how they should be storing them, so for everyone’s sake just roll them up instead of potato-balling them. By the way, was I the only person who stored my socks and undies together? ‘Cause now I have a separate drawer for my socks and tights and I feel really pretentious but I love it. Tell me I wasn’t the only one who stored them together.. and if there are people out there storing them together – stop. Trust me. Being able to say ‘my sock drawer’ makes you really cool.

How To: Store your socks!

step 2

step 3

cinnamon swirl!

It has been over a month now since I cleared out my room and I’m absolutely delighted to say it’s still just as clean as it was the day I completed it, vacuumed and all. The first thing my Mam noted about it was how bare it was – which is exactly how I wanted it, I just wasn’t fully aware of it. The brightness in my room now is unbelievable, it’s unfortunate positioning left it with a lack of natural lightning but with the light-coloured furniture and bare walls I can make the most of the daylight. Since I was a teenager I had a need to fill up my bedroom walls with posters, quotes, concert tickets, pictures of friends and family and so on, I carried this need with my in this bedroom, behind my bed are some of my favourite photographs hanging up pinterest style, and facing across from where I sleep in my bed was a wall filled with tickets, signs, and political declarations. I still have my photographs up but in time I could replace them with the kinds of pictures which belong on a vision board (therefore this will be my vision wall, always gotta get one up on everyone else..). My opposing wall is completely empty however, bar two decorative quote thingies my Step-Dad picked up for me when I wasn’t feeling the best. I think this wall was the biggest change in my room, it has a calm influence on my bedroom now.

In total, I filled 5 45-litre bags for donating to a local charity and 3 45-litre bags of rubbish. I won’t deny the touch of separation anxiety I felt in the days following the clear out, wondering if I’d been too strict with what I discarded or not but if I genuinely miss an item that much I’ll just go source another one. Thankfully there’s nothing I’m missing, and a couple of days ago I filled a plastic bag with some more donations of bits and bobs that I was unsure of whether I was ready to let go of yet or not.

I wasn’t lying about the bags 🙂

A part of me still feels like it isn’t going to last, it is genuinely the perfect room for me and I’m fully in love with it, every time I use something I put it back where it belongs and I may or may not have taken to thanking my shoes after a day of wearing them..

Testimonies included in the book state how the tidying has improved people’s lives, I have felt a lot calmer recently and have been more productive with things that I pushed to the bottom of my to-do list – such as fixing up my poor car which has been sitting out the back untouched for over a year! Hopefully not much longer until she’ll be road-worthy again! (Would this be something you’d be interested in following along with? Let me know!) I made jokes in my review about OCD, but I genuinely recommend this method to everyone. Most of her steps are listed on pinterest, if you just search “KonMari” you’ll find all you need. From my experience, if I had to describe the KonMari Method in one word, it would be ‘relief’. I have a brand new bedroom, the one I have always wanted with a unique space for blogging, a beautiful candle display across from my bed, a proper home for my shoes and a perfect blend of happy yet calming colours. Pity I’m planning on moving into my own place in the near-ish future, but at least then I can apply the method to my own home, having it on point from day one!

So I decided to apply the 'Kon Mari' method to my bedroom... Every Wednesday I share a review of a book. The book is chosen for me weekly and I cannot refuse the book, I have to read it and I have to review it.

#featured #Kon Mari

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charlottelouisepage · 7 years

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Hey guys! Happy New Year! Here we are, 2017 is upon us. Don’t worry I am not going to start listing my new year’s resolutions that I probably won’t end up sticking to. However I am hoping that this year will be a productive, healthy and happy one, not just for myself, but for all of you.

My first post of this brand new year is obviously going to be my what I got for Christmas 2016 haul. I love seeing what other people got for Christmas because it always gives me great ideas for people’s birthdays etc. Just a little disclaimer, this is in no way to brag about what I got! I appreciate everything that I get and feel very lucky.

As always I will try and link everything down below to make it easier for you all. Now let’s get started.

Main Present

Every year I get what is known as my “main present”, which basically means it is the most expensive item. This Christmas I got a Nutri Ninja 900 Watts Blender. I have wanted one of these for about a year now and I thought Christmas would be the perfect time to ask for one. This product makes just about anything from smoothies and soups to desserts and sauces. Also it is very simple to use. If you guys would like a post/review on the ninja and how to use it, then let me know.

Beauty

I received a lot of beauty gifts this year (which comes as no real surprise) and I can’t wait to try them all out. Some of them are new products and some are old favourites.

From my sister I received the Liz Earle Daily Ritual Gift Set that includes a bottle of the classic 100ml Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser, 2 muslin cloths, the 30ml spritz version of their Instant Boost Skin Tonic and the 10ml roller ball of the Superskin Concentrate for night (the product that I had on my list). Liz Earle is one of my all time favourite skincare brands and every LE product I have used I have fallen in love with and seen results.

Also from my sister I got two beauty products that I had on my Christmas list. The first one is the Tangle Teezer Original in the Plum Delicious colourway. I already have the compact one in my handbag, but wanted the original to keep at home. The other is the Real Techniques Bold Metals Collection 301 Flat Contour Brush. This has been on my wishlist for a while too. As it stands I love Real Techniques brushes, but this is my first from their Bold Metals Collection. It looks too pretty to use though.

My mum got me two divine beauty gift sets, the first from The Body Shop. I always love receiving The Body Shop products as a gift, mostly because of the beautiful packaging (I am a sucker when it comes to packaging) and I have a collection of boxes and bags that products come in that I normally use for storage. This Christmas she got me the Mango Beauty Bag. You seriously can’t go wrong with a gift set from The Body Shop. The other comes from Marks & Spencer. Their Nature’s Ingredients brand is what I would call a more affordable version of The Body Shop, but still just as lovely to use in my opinion. I was there when my mum bought this for me and it is the Super Fruits Butter Collection. An array of my favourite fruits together in this one collection is a winner. It also has a lip butter inside, which I am itching to try out.

My manager was so sweet, as she got me the Mini Must Haves Set by Ted Baker. I don’t know if she knew this, but Ted Baker is another of my favourite beauty brands. This set is so cute.

Some of my friends followed the beauty gift set buying trend also and I ended up with the Victoria’s Secret Blush Fragrance Gift Set. If anybody ever wants to know a fail safe brand to buy from for me, then VS has to be it. I can never have enough of their fragrances. Another fragrance I got was one I haven’t tried before and it is the Heat Seduction by Beyonce gift set.

The final two gift sets come from my best friend, who I have known for almost 15 years now! She definitely knows the kinds of things that I like and she actually bought me the same gift set that I was originally going to buy for her. The gift set in question is the Lancome Excessive Look Gift Set which comes with the Hypnose Drama Mascara (another wishlist product). I’m always looking for a new mascara because it’s a product that I cannot live without. The final beauty gift comes from a brand that I was introduced to only a year ago is the Dr. Organic Rose Otto Perfect Complexion Gift Set. It comes with the face mask, face scrub and the facial serum.

Books/CDs/DVDs

The older I get the more books I want to buy. Joe Wicks aka The Body Coach is somebody I discovered last year on YouTube and has become a household name in the past year. I love his passion and enthusiasm for all things health and fitness. He has really motivated me to start taking better care of myself. I was lucky enough to get a copy of his latest book, Lean in 15: The Sustain Plan. I have already made a couple of his recipes, I know I will use this on a weekly basis.

The other recipe book is a gift from my sister and it’s Tanya Bakes by none other than my favourite blogger Tanya Burr. She has inspired me so much when it comes to blogging and I just love everything that she does. This book is something that again I will be using a lot over the years.

This year’s Christmas present to myself (yes I am one of those people that buys presents for them self) was the Happiness Planner. Again I wanted to get one last year, but I know they can be quite expensive compared with other planners. This year I saw it unexpectedly while I was out Christmas shopping with my friend in Anthropologie and I knew at that moment I had to get one. This year is most definitely the year to start planning my life better.

Something that I wasn’t expecting to get was from my mum that she put in my stocking was the Poldark Deluxe Edition CD. Anyone that knows me will already be fully aware that my favourite TV show at the moment (and when I say favourite, I mean obsessed over) is Poldark. I didn’t even know there was a CD out! My mum cleverly got this for me and I was so surprised. Well done mother.

To go along with the CD my aunt and uncle bought me the recently released Poldark Series 2. I will happily watch it over and over again until series 3. Actually I am watching it as I type this. The final DVD is Inside Out, the Disney Pixar movie that I wanted to see when it first came out, but life got in the way.

Food/Drink

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without receiving food and/or drink related presents. I of course received many because I love my food and drink. Mostly chocolate I must warn you, but then who doesn’t love chocolate.

My sister knows me all too well and knows how much I love Nutella. I get through Nutella like there’s no tomorrow. Maybe that’s why she decided to get me the 1kg (family size) jar. Don’t worry I will share it. Another thing I love is the Nando’s Peri Peri Salted Chips and I was so happy when I opened the Nando’s Peri Peri Salt and Salt Shaker Gift Set. Now I can have the chips at home.

My mum without fail will always buys me and my sister chocolates for Christmas. This time around I got a tube of Dairy Milk Buttons, as well as a large bar of Galaxy Milk Chocolate, a 4 pack of Kinder Bueno Chocolate Bars and a box of Guylian Belgian Chocolate Seashells. Standard Christmas stocking fillers, but always welcomed.

My friend got me a bottle of prosecco, an 850g bar of Dairy Milk Chocolate, a cocktail making set and a cast iron skillet to make brownies.

Miscellaneous

These are all of the remaining presents that I received. Every year something that I can expect are a new pair of pyjamas and slippers. I got some super cosy slippers from Accessorize and my PJs are from Boux Avenue.

This faux fur hot water bottle is just what I need for those cold January nights we are having. My mum bought this as one of my stocking fillers.

My aunt and uncle got me a new jewellery box, which I have been after for a very long time. My old one was broken and just not big enough to store my jewellery collection. It was time for an upgrade. This timeless dark charcoal grey one is the perfect addition to my bedroom. It gave me a good excuse to clear out all of my old jewellery too.

This Victoria’s Secret Wristlet Wallet was another unexpected gift from my friend. This will be perfect for when I don’t want to take a big bag out with me, there’s space for my phone, cards, change and notes. It’s a grained material and black, so won’t mark or wear easily.

My final present that I have to share with you is probably one of my top ones because it is me, but something I never thought existed. This Louis Vuitton mirrored coaster is so cool and my sister really did well with this one. I know it’s not real LV, but just the idea of having the LV logo on a coaster gets me excited. It’s the small things in life.

Items I have mentioned

Nutri Ninja 900 Watts Blender

Liz Earle Daily Ritual Gift Set

Tangle Teezer Original

RT Bold Metals Collection 301 Flat Contour Brush

The Body Shop Mango Beauty Bag (US Site Only)

Nature’s Ingredients Butter Collection

Ted Baker Mini Must Haves Set

VS Blush Fragrance Mist (Gift Set Unavailable)

Beyonce Heat Seduction Gift Set

Lancome The Excessive Look Gift Set

Dr. Organic Rose Otto Perfect Complexion Gift Set

Lean in 15 The Sustain Plan by Joe Wicks The Body Coach

Tanya Bakes by Tanya Burr

The 100 Day Happiness Planner

Poldark Deluxe Edition CD

Poldark Series 2

Inside Out DVD

1KG Nutella Jar

Nando’s Peri Peri Salt & Salt Shaker Gift Set

Dairy Milk Button Tube (currently unavailable)

Galaxy Milk Chocolate Bar

Kinder Bueno 4 Pack

Guylian Belgian Chocolate Seashells Box

Belletti Italia Prosecco

850g Dairy Milk Chocolate

Cast Iron Skillet and Brownie Mix Set

Martini XL Glass Set (currently unavailable)

Accessorize Tan Suedette Mule Slippers

Boux Avenue Floral PJs in a Bag

Marks & Spencer Rectangular Large Jewellery Box

Victoria’s Secret Tech Wristlet (similar)

Faux Fur Hot Water Bottle (currently unavailable)

Louis Vuitton Mirrored Coaster – Unknown

I hope you all enjoyed reading my What I Got For Christmas post and let me know what your favourite gifts were that you received over Christmas.

Charlotte

xoxo

What I Got For Christmas 2016 Hey guys! Happy New Year! Here we are, 2017 is upon us. Don't worry I am not going to start listing my new year's resolutions that I probably won't end up sticking to.

#haul whatigotforchristmas fblogger fbloggers ukblogger

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