Bargain Basement

I upcycle cashmere. I thrift it used or, better, clients give it to me in exchange for a credit.  They buy a multi-hued handmade poncho with their old sweaters.  Or fingerless gloves, or scarves, or hats (for a critical time, even pussy hats).  This was an outgrowth of my greed for the sumptuous textile and my inability to pay full price for it. Years ago, in my thrift store travels, I started finding cashmere sweaters.  Occasionally, I’d luck out and they’d be in good condition.  Usually, they had holes or stains or pills.  But I’d run my fingers over that downy luxury and think, “Couldn’t I do something with this?”  And so a (cottage) industry was born.

I’m gifted at making something out of nothing.  Just about every place I’ve ever lived has been an underwhelming box (some super underwhelming - complete with rats, termites, scorpions, used needles AND used condoms).  I’ve cleaned that box, painted that box, and filled that box with accumulated furnishings, most of which I either inherited (probably too fancy a word for taking what no one else wanted) or found at a flea market or bought at IKEA (or sometimes IKEA via craigslist - used IKEA, people) or straight-up pulled from the street.  The result is  magical, every time.  It ends up looking like a million bucks and it costs approximately seventy-five cents.

My parents were raised in the depression and thrift was a daily part of my childhood.  Sometimes that went so far as my mother not buying quite enough meat for dinner (this from the wife of a Marin doctor - old habits die hard).  I was raised to be conscious of resources (“Turn out the light when you leave the room!” “Why are you standing there with the refrigerator open?” “Who turned the heat up past 65?” “Wait, how much did that dress cost?”). I still live in fear of over-spending (though I often do).  Even with savings in the bank (and twenty years of paying my mortgage on time) I often wonder idly about foreclosure.

Of course, our relationships to money are emotional - and often about much more than a number in an account.  Money represents, at least for me, ease, but more importantly, safety. Somewhere in my psyche I believe that if I have enough money I am immune to harm.  Not true, of course - I know a lot of monetarily wealthy folks who struggle emotionally as much as I do if not more.   But it feels true, at least to me.

There are times when I take what I can get, for money or love - a difficult client with a tantalizing project, a charming rogue of a boyfriend with a habit of disappearing, a friend who talks much more than they listen.  And I do this because, on some level, I don’t believe I can do better or that I deserve to.  I’ll take the discount rack, the dusty estate sale, the dude who’s maybe a little mean.  Because I can’t afford more.

I love working within limitations.  My favorite project is one where there isn’t a lot to spend, where re-use is essential, where there’s a tight frame.  That’s when we get creative.  But there’s a line between thrift and the feeling of not having enough.  Thrift is a captivating puzzle.  Want is a soul-destroyer.  

I was a latch-key kid growing up in a remote mountain neighborhood.  When I did get the chance to be with friends, or really anyone, I was so grateful. But that meant that I’d put up with just about anything to be in the warmth of human company; sketchy unsupervised hijinx, questionable adults, bullies.  I enjoy my time alone now, and I can be with people I love pretty much whenever I want, but that stray dog gratitude is still in me, it still translates.  I know what’s it’s like to be alone in the cold and I figure I have to be on my best behavior to keep that from happening.

I make do with scraps.  Yes, sometimes those scraps are cashmere, sometimes they’re the frumpy house on the beautiful block, sometimes they’re men who are intelligent, handsome, successful (and explosive).  White girl scraps, for sure, but scraps all the same. I take what my peers don’t want or can’t envision being good.  And if I can, I make whatever it is great.

But I have this image of myself as a small girl, maybe four or five, huddled under the dining table (which I still had until very recently).  My family is eating above me and I’m waiting for bits to drop down, morsels that will be my dinner.  To be clear, nothing like that ever happened.  But I can see it.  And I can feel it.

I’d rather live from a place of wealth, of abundance.  It doesn’t have to be monetary (though I wouldn’t argue). I’d like to walk through my world believing that I have enough, that I am enough, that I’m safe.  I’d like to stop building beautiful cakes out of crumbs.  I don’t want to sacrifice my talent for bargain-hunting, for repurposing, for rebuilding.  But I would like to stop selling myself short.  Wheeling and dealing in the real world?  Excellent.  Striking an emotional bargain?  There never was such a thing.  I’ll take the second-hand cashmere, the vintage jeans, even the free couch.  But the rest, the difficult people, the fraught situations, the fear, I’ll leave by the side of the road.

Mars in Cancer

Mae and Lana are super into astrology.  They know their charts backwards and forwards (including “chart rulers” and other exotic aspects I’d never heard of).  They’ve also been educating me on mine.

My sun sign is Cancer, which the kids say makes for a good mother (nurturing, gentle) but a generally soggy person.  I could possibly tend towards passive aggression (wow, ok, I guess - if you say so,) hypersensitivity and a tendency to feel things deeply - ALL THE TIME.  I spend a great deal of time thinking about my emotions and the emotions of those around me, for better or worse.  Lana occasionally pats me on the arm and says “Poor little Cancer mommy”.

I have Sagittarius rising, which would speak for my flirtatiousness (they accuse me, correctly, of flirting with everyone and everything; cats, babies, husbands, wives, all the beings), my outward confidence (today I’m wearing pink cheetah print jeans) and my love of center stage (who wants to take a selfie??).

My Mercury (the planet of communication and intellect) is in Gemini.  I’m academically inclined, love word play and maybe have the tendency to gossip.  That explains my love of school (hand raised high in every class I ever took at any age, I can’t help myself), the kindle that travels with me everywhere (including from room to room), my great appreciation of words and putting them together (evidenced here) and, okay, yes, sometimes I do speak freely of my community when with a trusted friend (a most political definition of gossip).

Adorably, all three of us have our moons in Aquarius.  This means that our private selves are observant, detached, happy in quiet.  So lounging on a sofa together with books (or silent phones) is a happy equation for us.  We’ve thought about getting matching tattoos memorializing this planet placement but can’t quite figure out the image (we did consider a couch but maybe it’s not the most attractive visual for all eternity).

The really bad news is that my Mars is also in Cancer.  Mars is the planet of aggression.  It’s conflict, ambition, how you show up in a fight.  I show up like a Cancer; wobbly and passive and emotional.  I’m a lover, not a fighter.

Conflict is, in daily life, one of my greatest struggles.  I lavishly skirt it and when I’m forced to face it, I’m profoundly afraid.  I’m often convinced of my opponent’s argument and forget my own.  My voice shakes when I try to speak my truth in the chill of hostility.  I’m a crab without it’s shell, one giant soft target.  A fight makes me want to barf - literally, as the kids say.

It also means that being an actress was a predictably difficult position for me.  Walk in a room on a daily basis and convince a group of (usually uninterested) strangers of my talent?  And get turned down at least nine times out of ten?  I’m not built for it.  I spent my entire twenties nauseous.

It means that new client meetings are often daunting for me.  Believing in my own ideas and worth, being a warrior, doesn’t come naturally.  Once we’re friendly and cozy and in the process of design, I’m good.  But breaking the ice, showing up as someone that a stranger would want to trust with a project, requires an internal shove (go get ‘em, tiger - no really, GO).

The last number of years I’ve been working on standing my ground without apology, serene and unmovable as a redwood tree (or at least that’s the image my therapist and I landed on).  I’ve been trying to move through the world with less fear, spend less time appeasing difficult characters in an effort at defanging.  I breathe deep and try to remember that, really, there’s not a lot that can harm me in this later stage of adulthood, at least not in the way my child heart believes.

For the most part, I’m standing stronger.  But every once in a while, conflict will surface like a dorsal fin from the ocean’s placid surface.  I’ve surrounded myself with kind and loving people in my personal life; if trouble arises there it’s resolved with care by all parties; no sharks to be seen. The only battles that do feel worth attempting are those that involve the welfare of my children.  I need to protect my work and my income, I need to show up fiercely to advocate for what I feel is right for the kids if they need that help.  And if that battle is with someone less than kind, though I may show a brave face, internally it’s 7.5 on the Richter scale.  Everything in me wants to throw up my hands in surrender and say, “You win, just please, please, go away”.  But, when I’m fighting for the kids and our livelihood, I swallow hard and face the enemy.

It’s the hardest thing I do, in a sea of challenges (attempting to parent wisely and compassionately, captaining my own business(es), managing the household and it’s often tight budget).  It’s the time I most lean on my friends, the time I most miss being partnered.  It feels lonely and terrifying and often futile.  No matter how hard I try to reinvent myself, my basic wiring is what it is.  My Mars is in Cancer.  I’m never going to be good at fighting - it’s always gonna scare the shit out of me.

Thankfully, at the end of my day slaying dragons, I return to the treehouse on the hill.  I put together dinner and sit on the couch with those gorgeous kids and the beloved street dog, munching and chatting and watching old seasons of Survivor; the crab finally deep inside the safety of it’s protective shell.  And so so happily, I put my phone on do not disturb.  Go away, scary old world.

Oh, also?  My Venus is in Leo.  Die-hard romantic.  Damn it.