danatropicana

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Hi! I'm Dana and that rhymes with so many things, but let's go with "tropicana". My name pronunciation is the Canadian female version - I was born in Montreal and moved to Hollywood, FL, when I was 11. It was fun at first and then it just got boring and I wanted to live in a city and I also wanted to study medicine. I love a good two-fer so I did the Six-Year Medical Program at Boston University. Being in Boston in the late 80s and early 90s had a huge impact on my aesthetic and worldview. I was going to be a radiologist (I love anything ~anatomical~ and anything to do with medicine in general and psychiatry and ~brains~ and ~skulls~ more specifically). This plan did not work because I have a weird eye disease and needed two corneal transplants and also I have bipolar 1 and I could not handle all the stress. So I am on disability after trying so many jobs in so many cities and always going manic under pressure. I used to be afraid to discuss the bipolar but you can see I'm over that, yay! I am all about ~mental health awareness~ and I'm here to help or educate.

I like to share my experience of living over half my life with a mental illness and how I came to accept my diagnosis without it defining me. I am still struggling with the psychiatric parts pretty much daily (you might get weird words from me, but I try to be coherent when I write), and as I age, I'm starting to see what not taking care of myself consistently has done to my physical health. Please take care of yourself!

Update 6/17/21: on June 1, I had all my teeth extracted (except for the one that fell out by itself) and was given a full set of dentures. This happened because my mental illness often found me neglecting my oral hygiene. I have a long way to go to heal and it's been a bizarre experience, but now I am obsessed with teeth, dentist appointment stickers, ads for vintage denture accessories, and that sort of thing.

So if any of that interests you, please let me know! You can reach out to me in DMs and I'm happy to help if I can!

I listen to music every day and am very passionate about what I listen to. I'm a serious fangirl.

These are a few faves:

Carly Rae Jepsen, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Kesha, Caroline Polachek, Adele, Kehlani, M.I.A., Rina Sawayama, Japanese Breakfast

And some k-pop artists: SUNMI, Twice, BTS, Itzy, Blackpink, Everglow, 2NE1

But also

Wilco, XTC, Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, The Cure, Pavement, Weezer, Prince, NIN

And bossa nova and Julien Doré and Tchaikovsky and Fleetwood Mac and ELO and Boston and and and...

I am crafty but not artistic. My vision is getting worse (update 06/17/21: I am now officially legally blind) and so it's hard to see what I'm doing sometimes and I'm often sloppy. Hey, mistakes are just design elements...

I like to do collage and mixed media, often using vintage dymo and tags.

I have two of those K&Co Smashbooks but I only add to one sometimes and I haven't started the second. Any K&Co accessories would be greatly appreciated and those big pockets would make me very happy!

I enjoy making envelopes. I like to write notes and letters.

I love to add washi and stickers to envelopes when I send cards, letters, and swaps. Please don't send tiny stickers because I can't really see them.

I love TV and we watch a lot in our house.

Some favorites:

American Dad, Schitt's Creek, Brooklyn 99, Ancient Aliens, Rick & Morty, It's Okay to Not Be Okay, The Americans, House, Cells At Work, Japanese Style Originator (please let me know your thoughts on this if you watch! :-)

The pandemic severely affected my voracious reading habit. I can only read ebooks and I have to make the font huge. Luckily, my library has a good eBook system and I have gotten back into reading daily. If you have any recs, please pass them along!

Some favorites:

~ Lauren Groff: I have read Arcadia, The Monsters of Templeton, and Fates and Furies and I am working on Matrix now (these are long!). Next is Florida. I'm set to be a big fan of this author now

~ Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

~ Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

~ Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

~ Banana Yoshimoto (anything by her)

~ The Vanishing Half / The Mothers by Brit Bennett

~ Taylor Jenkins Reid - Evelyn Hugo / Daisy Jones esp. but all her books are good

~ The Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French

~ The Practical Magic books by Alice Hoffman and also The Dovekeepers by her is historical fiction at the siege on Masada with witchiness

~ 11/22/63 by Stephen King

~ closed-circle murder mysteries

~ non-fiction: Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

~ My aesthetic is eclectic; I like cottagecore/cottagegoth and kawaii and retro and witchy stuff

~ Favorite color is any shade of purple but I prefer darker ones. I also love black

~ I love dogs (we have a maltipoo named Baby) and penguins and foxes and owls and most animals really

~ I love anything related to space, astronomy, astrology (I love being a bipolar Gemini), aliens, the paranormal

~ I love mushrooms and have some theories about fungi

~ I love nature in general except for snakes and wasps

~ I love paper ephemera. I consider old usable stamps to be the ultimate ephemera and will enjoy any usable USPS denomination you share

~ I love "flow" paper items

~ I love shiny & glittery things

~ I love anything cute and have a broad definition of kawaii - brands aren't important to me, I just enjoy adorable stationery! My favorites are Chococat and Hello Kitty but I like finding new characters to love

~ My favorite stationery is the letter set and I love an interesting note card. I don't do many postcard swaps but I like cool postcards

~ I drink a lot of tea and I like anything that doesn't have chamomile or anything "stress reducing" or "detox" - I just don't like chamomile, but the other stuff can interfere with my meds. I love trying new teas and have found so many new faves here!

~ I love tarot and oracle cards and if you have one (or more!), please consider sending it to me so I can add it to my collection. I can see you putting it into the envelope...

~ 420 - daily use as part of my bipolar therapy and actually part of the reason we moved to WA state; I would love to hear your stories and see your art and do private swaps with you as I have a small but fun collection of washi and lots of flavors of Juicy Jays if you want to try some out

~ ~ ~ ~ don't need any of these:

~ bookmarks (I don't read print books) (if a swap includes a bookmark, please send whatever you like - handmade or otherwise :)

~ tags

~ ~ ~ ~ don't like any of these:

~ tiny stickers

~ chamomile

~ teas for de-stressing or detoxing or anything healing sounding

~ snakes

~ wasps

I can go on... Thanks for reading and please contact me about anything!

I appreciate everything anyone sends me! Thank you to everyone who has ever sent me anything! You made my day!

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November 12, 2021 afterthought..

Wow do I love movies! I didn't put this section in because I was overwhelmed, and also, I didn't think my movie preferences would be helpful for swaps. But I just rewatched Napoleon Dynamite and the aesthetic of the film is making me want to make art inspired by the movie! Napoleon Dynamite art from you would be cherished!

Others: anything by Billy Wilder, anything with Audrey Hepburn, anything with Kristen Stewart (especially Personal Shopper and Clouds of Sils Maria), French films old and new, Office Space (the other Mike Judge brilliant time capsule), anything Pixar, the documentary MIA Maya Matangi, The Big Short, and so so so many more...

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