Day 17: During last night’s group dinner at Tamarine, I was sitting on the other side of Patricia’s boyfriend Alex. Our conversation goes something like the following:
Alex: Hey, I really love this shop-stinance thing you’ve got going. It’s really cool.
Me: Oh really? I didn’t think you’d be into it.
Alex: Of course I’m into a movement whereby my girlfriend spend less money and less time shopping. I’ve been telling this one to get on the bandwagon [points at Patricia].
Patricia: Hey! I haven’t been spending any money except via giftcards I already have. I did this to give her support the day she started shop-stinance.
Alex: Even better, girls can extend shop-stinance to like 100 days, then like a year, and then forever! Then you know, they can have more time to do housework, like take out the trash and do laundry and stuff. [jokes, but looks off into the distance longingly]
Me: I swear Patricia said you’re better at all those things than she is…
Conversation drifted soon after, as our minds were overtaken by the appearance of perfectly cooked sea bass and black cod that arrived at our table.
Perfectly cooked Sea Bass Nomsness.
Honestly, I hadn’t thought of shop-stinance as a “movement” that I needed to evangelize to other women, much less one that boyfriends and husbands would greatly appreciate having it turn into a regular “thing” of sisterhood and solidarity. To me it’s just something I thought I’d do to taper down my acquisitions whilst I try to get rid of more items.
For a brief moment I fantasize that I am a real life Katniss Everdeen. Here she was trying to survive within the cruel and unfair rules of The Hunger Games, whilst outsiders view her as a symbol of hope for the oppressed. My thoughts immediately spin off from this, and transfer to imagining myself as J.Law, happily tripping while wearing borrowed priceless baubles with a couture dress on The Academy Awards red carpet.
I digress. I did partially envision this process to be similar to a foodie starting a juice cleanse. When you spend all your time thinking, obsessing, and planning your next meal, what happens when it’s already planned out for you?— Like Alex alluded to, you have all this free time. I have spent these past 17 days trying to figure out what other things I like to do and what else makes me happy. In that respect, I would encourage other people (not only women) who equally enjoy retail therapy to give shop-stinance a try.
This morning I’m feeling sluggish and still a little tired, but need to head up to the city to meet Helen for brunch. Must soak up as much Helen time as possible while her husband Scott is on a business trip. Pick out an outfit from the closet, snap a quick #selfiesaturday and am off for an afternoon in San Francisco.
We arrive at a beautiful and relatively new (4 months young) Russian Hill restaurant by the name of Verbena. High ceilings, rustic like wooden tables, earthen stoneware and an exposed brick wall. Yes, this place was made for me. I end up ordering poached eggs with braised lamb ragout, over a bed of chard, hominy and pickled tomatoes (nomilicious), while Hel ordered the sourdough pancakes (also great). To drink I ordered the Emerald Remedy #2: Gin, Pimm’s Chartreuse, celery and lemon. It tasted like a refreshing lighter version of the bloody mary.
Verbena: poached eggs with braised lamb ragout, over a bed of chard, hominy and pickled tomatoes
Post lunch without being able to window shop the area, what did we decide to do? MOAR eating! We walked by this juice cleanse shop and I had the crazy idea that tomorrow while I’m waiting for my dulce de leche to become silky smooth, I will subject myself to a juice cleanse to help kickstart getting into better shape. In my mind, this made a whole lot of sense at the time, but now I’m not so certain. Nevertheless I am already committed.
After getting the juice, we decided to… go to a bakery! On the way to the bakery, I spot a garage sale, and halfway through my exclamation of “Let’s go!” Hel and I look at each other and realize at the same time that I can’t mosey over there. We then ended up staying on the far side of the street and I snapped this photo with a great yearning to jaywalk. Ugh, I want to pick through your wares and look for things to ebay or antique roadshow!
Missed Connections
Helen has been raving about B Patisserie where she wanted me to try a kouign amann. Also after my friend Ted had mentioned pain au chocolat the other week, I had been on a quest to find one that is deserving of it’s name, have had 2 so far in the past week that didn’t pass muster. Ended up ordering a pear and raspberry kouign amann and a banana chocolate croissant which we take back to Helen’s house and devour over tea and skim magazines. The croissant was delicious, but wasn’t a pain au chocolat, so I really couldn’t make a good comparision.
This is like the gran-pappy of the cronut. Flakey crispy and soft goodness.
Have successfully substituted weekend shopping rituals for having a food baby and catching up with Hel today. Feeling way overfull , but will even that out tomorrow with the juice cleanse. Already suspect the coming day will be a long and agro adventure, since I will a combination of hangry and shop-stinance.
Definitions:
- Food baby: When you’ve eaten so much your belly is bulging like you’re pregnant.
- Hungry + Angry = Hangry
Bought: 0
Pinned: 0
Sold: 0
Returned: 0
Gifted: 0
P.S. Since the Great Tupperware Debate of 2014 ended up in a tie, I decided to wait till I’m done with shop-stinance to purchase the dreamy Ikea tupperware.
