You're Using Your Good Shit!!!

YAY YAY YAY

I asked, you answered! Thank you so much for sharing your stories of how you’re using the stuff that once felt too fancy for everyday. Tracy Thompson was randomly selected as the recipient of a prize pack of stickers and other cool stuff that she will no doubt use right away!

Here’s what you said:

Mine's printing paper. Ordinary white A4 sheets ... I hoarded them but never wrote on them until I ran out of everything lined, and then I hastened to get more of that, even though it was writing on blank printing paper which made me happy. When the pandemic hit, I began to see that it was silly to save all the nice paper for some indefinite future use. So now when I sit down to write, I look at everything I have, lined, blank, plain, coloured, etc., and choose the sheets I really want in that moment. Sometimes I do find myself thinking things like 'no, that paper's too nice for a rough draft you'll just bin later', but I've learnt to dismiss those thoughts and enjoy myself instead.

—Hibah Shabkhez

I bought really nice perfume on a very special trip a few years back. I thought "I'll wear it on special occassions". I pulled it out recently for no particular reason, and the perfume still smells wonderful - and I wear it on my weekends at home (scent-free at work - I respect people with scent sensitivities!). It brings me back to a wonderful time in my life and lets me make new, wonderful memories, too.

— Marjorie Mitchell

I am going to start using my good perfume. I always save it for special occasions, but I never end up going anywhere to wear it. But I love it, and I feel prettier when I wear it. So, here we go!

—Emily Johnston

I use my good china for our monthly DnD campaign that my husband and I host. We are never going to be the fancy dinner party people. But we are part of a slightly irreverant, goofy, and obnoxious adventuring party. At first my friends and family protested. China wasn't supposed to be used for events like these and wasn't it too much work? But I elbowed them out of the way, dug it out of the china cabinet, and put it all out. It's been a couple of years now, and month by month we have Sunday lunch on fancy plates while we sit around a table and pretend to be dragonborn and elves; make stupid decisions we would never make in real life; and figure out problems and solve puzzles when real life ones seem too big to handle. Our DnD party consists of a few close friends and our adult children. Who else would I put my china out for if not for them?

—Tina Griffin

Today's newsletter felt a bit as if you'd been peeking in my desk drawers. I have dozens of "good pens" and stacks of fancy papers and pretty journals and gorgeous stickers that have been accumulating there because I was saving them for something special. I do not want to die with a handful of Uno wildcards....today is the day I'm busting out the good shit!!! Thanks for the encouragement. I printed the "permission slip" badge to remind me just in case I'm tempted to relapse.

—Tracy Thompson

I use the stickers that I buy. Sometimes I love them so much that I want to keep them pristine, in which case I buy two sets. Being an adult rules!!!

—Holly P.

I am hereby resolving to finally cull my socks drawer. It's literally a full dresser drawer crammed with socks. Over 117 pairs when I last counted. And I really did count them because of a bet that I lost. I have one pair of special socks from high school (over 60 years ago!). Of course I never wear them. Seems so stupid to think of it now. I'm guessing at least half of my pairs have holes so I don't wear them either. I can so relate to the vortex of my special spiral. Thinking it over, I have categories of socks in my vortex. You won't believe that in the backroom of my twisted mind I have rankings of the categories. For example, of probably 15 pairs of nearly identical black socks I have those that are blackest, they are the most prized and least worn because I don't have many special occasions calling for them. It pains me to further face and explain the details of my socks drawer. My time will be better spent purging my socks drawer. (PS Do I get partial credit for having only one socks drawer?)

—Veronica Kirk

A beautiful wedding gift we received (almost 20 years ago) was a set of cutlery. Inset in each handle is a swirl shape, of a gold coloured material. I remember being delighted with the gift but I put it away, only using it occasionally, because I feared ruining it. You read that right, ruining cutlery!WTF?! 

It was only when unpacking our home after moving some five years ago did I decide to put that cutlery in the drawer with the non fancy cutlery, to be used every day. It’s far from being ruined.

I try to do this with everything ‘fancy’ I buy, life is to short to not use the good stuff

—Kim Cofield

I need to start using more of my own good shit and your two posts have inspired me to do this! My 80 something year old parents have already gotten there and when I visit them (and they tell me they do this whenever they feel like it) they do things like breaking out these 100+ year old plates and bowls and we happily eat perfectly mundane comfort foods out of them. Like pasta fagioli or shit on a shingle. Yeah, we are making our ancestors fucking proud by doing whatever the hell we want with their dishes! My parents have so many sets of china that have been handed down from so many relatives, that we can eat off of whatever we want to and it's all good. One day, many of these will be mine and I'll eat chicken soup out of a turn of the 19th century bowl and be fucking happy about it.

I do have one thing coming up soon that is a "use your good shit" story that relates to me. My husband's very best best aunt died last year and at the end of May we're going to Montreal to celebrate her life with a dance party at a super super fancy venue in a very posh part of town. I asked his uncle Stephen if there was a dress code for this event and he said, no, wear whatever the fuck you want because that's what Greita (the dearly departed) would have done AND wanted. She was fond of all things totally over the top and for this event, which is during the afternoon, I have a sparkly sequined fit and flare midi dress and some amazing black boots that have sequins too. The dress cost entirely too much but I don't care and she wouldn't care.

I also have a "bag" to carry that is basically a disco ball. It's the dancing queen model from Betsey Johnson. Both my aunt Greita and Betsey Johnson would be proud of my choices and i'm going to feel AWESOME. I bet Betsey Johnson uses her good shit ALL THE TIME. Greita would also be proud of me if I showed up in shorts and a t-shirt because she just wanted people to feel happy in their own skin. I have no idea what anyone else is going to wear and I don't care. I'm going to be awesome and make sure that someone takes photos of me in this fabulous place looking fabulous, in my GOOD SHIT. I am going to make an effort to wear all of the fabulous jewelry that I've collected over the years instead of just having the same crap on all the time. I can wear up to 6 earrings at one time so, world, get ready.

—Elizabeth Raley