Adult Field Trip
or, as most people would probably call it, a date
The sun is just beginning to shine in earnest where I live, but it's still too cold to really enjoy much time outside. My husband and I decided to make the most of this contradiction over the weekend and take an "adult field trip" to one of the bigger cities near us, about an hour away.
When he was growing up this was the city people went to, as he lived in fairly rural areas during his childhood. I've only been a handful of times, so it's nice to return to cozy places from his youth while also discovering something new each time.
One of our favorite places to go together is "The Witchy Store". It's not actually called that, which consequently means my husband was having a hard time actually finding it. He felt confident we would happen upon it as we usually do, and we did!
The store is under new management but they've remained faithful to the heart and soul of the space. You're immediately greeted by the overlapping smells of many many incense and the gentle sound of windchimes. As you wander towards the back, you can just make out a tarot reading in progress.
The wallpaper in the bathroom of The Witchy Store
My husband picked out a few crystals he didn't have in his personal collection: one for astral projection and one for grounding, to balance each other out. I spent nearly the whole time scouring the book shelves, open to whatever spoke to me. In the end I picked up a 50th anniversary copy of "The Tao of Physics"; last summer I read Chaos by James Gleick and Be Here Now by Ram Dass in tandem and noticed many interesting parallels. It seems like The Tao of Physics strikes the same chord, and I can't wait to begin reading it (as soon as I finish the book on astral projection I'm currently reading).
We went to a few new places this time, but the most exciting by far was a secondhand craft supply store. Originally created with art teachers in mind, I felt like I was in heaven. Especially in a time where it feels AI is beginning to invade every facet of human existence interfacing with physical media discarded by other people feels magical.
I spent a lot of time digging through old post cards labeled "Pre 1940s!" and ended up taking one home that had a note on the back where it seems a woman was attempting to set her friend up with her brother. Cute! I kept thinking about it while walking through the rest of the store, so I snagged it on the way out.
My husband spent some time digging through the discount bins, specifically one full of playing cards. He collects playing cards that he finds out in the world, which happens more often than you'd think. At first he seemed to think digging through the bins was in some way "cheating", to which I answered only you can decide what cheating looks like in a game you invented. In the end he took these three home:
My absolute favorite find from the entire trip came from a section that was full of used canvases and spiral notebooks. Right in the center of the table was a small black sketchbook. The front sported a few paint marker splotches, some cat hair, and a 50 cent sticker.
Even before I'd picked it up I could tell it had been well loved. There was color bursting out of the pages; it seemed like the whole thing had been filled. "Who would fill an entire sketchbook this big and give it away?" I asked myself before diving in.
As it turns out, the graffiti artist who had done the majority of the tags in this book had been arrested shortly after the book had been filled. It actually seems like his friends may have used the rest of the pages after his arrest. He spent a whopping eight years in jail, for vandalism as well as other crimes I won't get into here because the details online are sparse at best.
I can imagine despite this art being incredible, this would be difficult to look back on with a fondness after almost a decade in jail. I'm glad the sketchbook lives with me now instead of a dumpster. I've always had a huge fondness for graffiti, and will certainly be paying extra attention to it now. I hope the original artist is doing well, and that he continues to make art and find joy in it even if not in this medium.
