our magical wardrobe

the daily taryn — feb 19, 2024

Okay, first newsy in 2024… yuck. 2024 — the year number, not the entire energetic plane — feels off. It’s giving “random, very far away year that a 90s Disney movie referenced talking about flying cars and the downfall of society.”

She don’t like it.

My wife’s office is a magical, yet often off-limits place. It’s either immaculately organized (I’m welcomed in during this time) or deeply not. Piles of clothes, PR packages, and bags full of things she’s donating to a fashion non-profit that helps underserved women dress their best for the workplace.

This office feels like the closet that leads to Narnia. The wardrobe. It’s mysterious. It’d be great for hide and seek, and instead of leading you to a land of snow and whatever those snacks that one kid was obsessed with, it leads you to skincare products you’d never knew existed. Not yet released products and some that make you wonder, “how did you make it out to the public?” Like, snail juice ??? meant to cover your face ???

Although I find our in-house Narnia portal terrifying, I enter it 2-3x a month. I’m mostly in there to deliver coffee or steal a kiss when she’s cleaning, but I also take solo missions — I’ve embarked on these journeys maybe 10 times in 2 years.

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Mission log

Date of journey: Saturday, Feb 17th

Reason for mission: New moisturizer

Mission members: Taryn (Cam was doing makeup in the bathroom mere feet away)

Observations:

• i can’t believe brands send so much stuff. love it, but wow.

• holistic marketing is so important. brands with new products can’t send a tweet (or X? the fuck?) and expect a sale. you have to organically X them 10 times, then pay to X them, then design a package and write copy and literally just give people your product, hoping that it stands out enough among all the other gifted product to want to post about it on their story. THEN hope that THEIR post is eye catching enough - and again, that’s just a single touch. wild.

• woah, i didn’t know cam had that?

• double woah, i’ve been needing some new jewelry — i haven’t seen this tray of options before.

• tripwoah, i love these necklaces.

  • me, yelling above cam’s blowdryer: “babe! what are these pendant necklaces?”

  • cam, yelling back: “what??”

  • me: “these pendant necklaces! i think it says poseidon? you have like 3 — can i wear one?”

  • cam, getting louder as she enters Narnia: “let me see. oh - these? these are from my collection! the ones i designed a while ago.”

  • tar, bewildered and more in love: “you designed these??”

  • cam: “yeah, a while ago! i kept a couple.”

  • tar, a sap: “omg… can i… wear one??”

  • cam: “duh”

• wow. i knew she designed stuff a while back, but i guess i thought it was just that one rainbow ring. it’s crazy i didn’t ask more about that?

• what do these mean to her? why did she make these? who is wearing them?

• how cool. i’m so proud of her.

• the fact that these were just sitting in here all along, undiscovered by me, is crazy. she knew they were here but didn’t think to tell me because she doesn’t know what i don’t know.

• huh.

• i liked this mission.

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Wardrobes — much like messy closet/offices, or the people we’ve committed our lives to — are meant to be explored. Consistently. Because no two missions will ever be the same. Some require company, some require space. Some you leave with nothing. Some with a replacement of an old thing. And sometimes, when you’re really lucky — you come out with something new entirely.

Aaaaand this is where I leave you. If you read and liked, please tell me somehow — comment, share, whatever. Means the world to hear back from you all!

Talk soon.

your friend,

taryn