come on, get happy

at least in the beauty/fashion industry, everyone is operating in panic mode.

people who don't have jobs are leaping and jumping every time someone calls them for something - even if they want to pay you in dreamsicles.

people who DO have jobs are having panic attacks, taking valium, doing yoga classes obsessively and not answering anyone unnecessary - whether it's on the phone, by email or seeing them in the street.

people spend days and days trying to make decisions.

and then they change their minds.

or the budgets get cut because someone else changed his mind.

or they get laid off because someone said it was the smart thing to do in this economy.

wandered around the shops on wednesday and noted that in henri bendel, bergdorf goodman and saks - the only people on the selling floors were salespeople. it felt like a mauseoleum.

no wonder no one wants to go to shops.

instead of retail therapy, they've become fear-inducing places trying to deplete your financial insulation against the onslaught of the economy.

we need to figure out a new way to sell stuff.

a fluttery silk-shift printed with enormous flowers and beading on the neck can still stop me dead in my tracks.

and those metallic high-heeled prada gladiators. the chanel black hightops. a cool, multicolored FLIP camera.

a bottle of hampton privet hedge fragrance.

i want them...

we just need to change how we buy. i don't want to buy in a suffocating, windowless edifice where everything feels artificial and manipulated.

i want fresh natural salespeople. i want to feel like i'm getting something customized for me, something special and original. maybe handmade.

i want daylight and air.

i want to feel like i've got my friends around.

and i want to feel like i'm paying a fair price and not mortgaging my kids' future - no bad plastic, no bottles that can't be recycled, no horrific chemical ingredients or treatments, nothing made by child labor or political prisoners.

come on,

we all need stuff.

you can't really get EVERYTHING at wholefoods.

the way to a man's heart might be through his stomach but a woman still falls for something pretty.