11 items a Type B is sure of

What I can commit to keeping around

I am very rarely sure about anything at all, I hold almost nothing with a dogmatic spirit, I tend to value convenience and cost over care and consistency. This isn’t something I’m proud of, and it’s one of two things that I wish I could change about myself with a flip of a switch. I don’t own things long enough to grow attached, and if I do, I know something different (maybe not better) is around the corner. If something of mine breaks or runs out, I’ll buy whatever is close by and cheap. Or I’ll borrow if a friend wants to save my day. I can be convinced to try whatever, however, and trust that others have probably done more thorough research. If they have the confidence to test their hypothesis about something and come up with a valid thesis, I thank them for doing the work for me. I own a lot of halves of pairs: one earring, lots of left or right socks, wired headphones but no dongle to plug them in. My hair product changes every other month, so my curls do too. As long as The Curly Crown that leads by body isn’t matted or knotted, that’s good enough for me. I’ve left a trail of bits and bobs everywhere I go. However, there have been fine and few encounters with things that I can commit to with pride, or at least, comfort. I’ve found some ritual in the randomness, and so in no particular order, these are those - 11 things a type B is sure of.

1. Studded Frye boots

   I took these from my mom one day when my other pair of shoes finally broke. I would have never bought these in store if I had seen them on the shelf. It’s been three years since I put them on and three years since I took them off. My dog took one of the boots recently and hid it outside. I don’t know what his motive was, but I have my suspicions. My family and I created our own personal search and rescue mission because we all knew if I didn’t have these shoes, I wouldn’t have any shoes at all. A $5 thrifted pair of black-and-white-one-size-too-big Converse got me through the two-week period where my boot rusted outside. Google reverse image search says these go for about $100. That might be what they are worth, but I don’t think it sums up their value.

   

   

   

2. Anthropologie Vanilla perfume

   I wore this on my first date when I was 12 years old. His mom picked us up and we walked around the commons. I wore it when I was 22 and celebrating my birthday in New York and found out my friend whose couch I was sleeping on had also slept with my ex of a few years. The perfume has maintained a composed innocence throughout the last decade, as have I. When I first started buying it, it was $18. It’s $24 now. A mature starter perfume that can be bought at the mall. I wouldn’t consider this my signature scent anymore, but for 10 years, I’d find this in my stocking every Christmas.

3. Both the things that cover my electronics (my phone case and my computer case)

   To further fulfill a stereotype, I have lost 30 or so debit cards. I’ve never lost a phone. I have a wallet phone case now and haven’t lost a card since. I’m waiting for the day wildflower hops on the wave of cute convenience. If I lose my phone, I’m fucked. My computer case is a real wood case I got off Etsy. The edges are starting to crack, and when it finally breaks, I'll be a returning customer. I like that I can almost always knock on wood if I have my laptop, and that it contrasts the digital vs the natural.

   

4. Precise V7 pens

   I got lucky I found these. I bought them at school and ended up rebuying them on Amazon when the ink finally ran out. I have messy handwriting, and when I use this pen, it becomes legible! In fourth grade, my teacher made me write with a pencil grip trainer. It’s supposed to change the way you hold a writing instrument so others can read your handwriting. It made my writing worse and somehow planted a seed of insecurity towards my handwriting. This pen undid all of that. Yesterday, when I was leaving the house, I put my journal and pen down on the kitchen island, and my mom noted the pen. She said, “That’s such a nice pen”. I explained how I’m never really particular about anything, but I am with these, so I’m glad she noticed what I noticed. Maybe it’s the genetic sensibilities, maybe it’s just a good pen.

5. Matcha with lavender and oat milk

   Things are popular for a reason. Matcha with lavender and oat milk is my cafe order. I’ve stuck with it for a few years now and am never disappointed. My best friend Jordan was anti-oat milk. We went to a cafe in Montreal “Matcha”, Nestor is the owner, and he travels to Japan a few times a year to source his Matcha from farmers. He gave a very detailed explanation that Matcha should never be paired with cow milk. It has nothing to do with flavor, but drinking Matcha with dairy milk prohibits the way your body is able to absorb certain nutrients. So yea for flavor, oat is still better, but also the one person who knows more about Matcha than anyone I’ve met or will meet says go oat or go home. Jordan gets oat now, too. Plants that grow together, go together!

   PS. To be more specific with it: Minor Figures organic oat milk, ceremonial grade matcha from “Matcha” in Montreal, and plain lavender syrup. By plain, I mean as few ingredients as you can get.

   

   

6. Voluminous lash paradise volume mascara in blackest black

   This is technically a Better Than Sex dupe. Better Than Sex mascara is $30. Voluminous lash paradise is $11. BTS has so much fallout, smells weird, and doesn’t last me more than an hour before being halfway down my face. I can wear VLP for three days camping, and it stays on my lashes and not my face. It comes off with a makeup wipe and without any eyelashes as collateral. A cop came up to me last week when I was sitting on a patio drinking my matcha with oat and lav (shoutout moonphaze in Agoura) and asked what I do to my lashes.

7. Nose ring

   I was sure I wanted a nose ring since as long as I can remember. Maybe too young to be wanting one. I wonder where our taste comes from. I look back at who I was when I was 5 and what I was interested in, and it’s all really the same thing. The seed of ourselves sprouts so young. Finally on my 16th birthday, after nagging for years, my parents took me to get it. I’ve been wearing the same hoop for 6 years and suspect I’ll die with it in. My mom followed suit. Maybe it really is the genetic sensibilities.

8. Green juice when you are sick

   This is the California in me coming out. I worked on and off at a juice bar for too many years. Buy some ginger, apple, and spinach and drink your greens.

9. Film

   Stay Broke, Shoot Film. I do, unfortunately, love every single part of the process. Shaky hands runs in my family. I can’t draw or paint or make or build. Film gives me the experience of tangibility while making something out of nothing. Here is a slice of the world I saw, and I want you to see it too, and maybe feel what I felt. If that translates.

10. The color Pink

    

11. My Henry Miller Memorial Library tote bag

    One of the only times I rebought something was this bag. All my totes before came from the goodwill bins or hand-me-downs. After a backpacking trip in Big Sur, I went to one of my favorite places on earth, Henry Miller Memorial Library. I’ve taken day trips here, just to sit in on an open mic or lie in the grass. This time I decided to buy their tote, which understatedly shared their motto, “Where Nothing Happens”. I liked the feeling of having a bag I knew would be stained and dirty and heavy, and yet maintain an outer composure of stillness. It’s just a bag, but it’s the bag I carry every day. When it finally snapped, I panicked. Jordan got a new one shipped from Big Sur to Montreal for my birthday. They don’t ship, but for some reason, they made an exception. It’s a new blank; it’s sturdier, and the straps are thicker. The conversations sparked from it have always left me feeling like I made the right choice so I’ll make it again and again and again.