The Lovechild of Andy & Stormy

2 things about me is I made up my personality based on a little girl & a grown woman I found in books.

When I was a girl I read Goosebumps (who didn't? Why didn't you?!) & it was in Monster Blood II that I read this description of Andy, the main character's best friend (& harbinger of the eponymous monster blood): "Right now she was wearing a sleeveless magenta T-shirt over bright yellow shorts, which matched her yellow sneakers."

& from that time on, I have cultivated a style of brightly-colored outfits w/ matching pieces, because I thought Andy was cool.

Later, I read a lot of Dean Koontz. Bronwen "Stormy" Llewellyn, the girlfriend of the titular Odd Thomas, was also extremely cool, & a devout practitioner of delayed gratification. So, I went ahead & incorporated a doctrine of near-ascetic delayed gratification into the way I live my life. I eat my vegetables 1st & my carbohydrates last. I exercise while fasting. I don't wake & bake. I once spent an entire summer searching thrift stores for a French press & only months later came away w/ a $40 Bodum that I only spent ~$8 on. Could I have purchased this Bodum brand new online? Yes - but the struggle on the journey to ownership is part of an item's intrinsic value. & far be it from me to devalue something I really, really want.

It's okay the way that your stuff identifies you. Humans have buried pharaohs w/ their jewelry AND their pets! The issue as I see it is the consumerism & the planned obsolescence which divorces us from the identity our stuff would otherwise share w/ us. There is sometimes a stigma associated w/ being someone who LIKES certain things & spends a little extra money to have those things. & there is certainly a stigma associated w/ hoarding behavior. Every home I've ever entered has been an encyclopedia of the client's personality, up to & including the parts that they hide in a drawer they don't open. It's up to me to open up all those drawers & tell you who you are, represented there, is good enough.

Going into your house tells me shit that should not embarrass you. It is cool that you paint Minifigures. It is interesting how you have endlessly pursued a capsule wardrobe. It is perfectly fine that your grandmother sends you all her Beekman products from QVC. Because the D&D bad guys & the minimalist outfits & the As-Seen-on-TV lotions represent your values; whether those be camaraderie & play, function tied to form, or just love for Grandma. My only role in your home is to help you put the sacrosanct out in the open. Or - @ the very least - to demystify the contents of the sacrosanct drawer, so you can find that value inside it again long after I'm gone.