I'm serious. Down the Rabbit Hole with Jennie O'Connor helps multipotentialites build lifestyles from their passions, amplify their wealth & achieve personal freedom. Go sign up for Sally's Knitting Newsletter instead.
I'm dangerously addicted to this
I ought to be embarrassed, Reader.
It seems my feelings about Halloween never evolved beyond 1st grade when I treated sugar like it was a precious commodity I could only get once a year.
I became that teenager obsessed with horror films and progressively more realistic haunted experiences. Live chainsaws dipping dangerously close to my face? Kidnapping and low-key torture? Sign me up!
I majored in costume design and had a professional photoshoot with my handmade Catwoman, Medusa and Jessica Rabbit costumes. Later, I won $500 for a chandelier costume that, thankfully, no one knew required I drive to the contest location with no pants on.
To this day, I spend two full weeks decorating my home each October. It's the Olympics of holiday-themed interior design - with each individual "event" so intricate and exhausting, I have to nap in between. The irony is that I live 90 minutes from my nearest friend, and aside from a handful of neighbors who visit me approximately 2.3 times per year per household, absolutely no one but myself and my cat will get to enjoy it.
No one will appreciate the ways in which the wet bar has become a mad scientist's laboratory.
No one will share the guilt of eating an entire loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip bread and washing it down with pumpkin-infused vodka.
And no one will shake their heads, mystified, as I walk from room to room, turning on thousands of battery-operated tea lights, only to turn them all off again four hours later.
But this is a joy project, Reader.
I can think of no greater use of my time than stewing myself in Halloween juice.
This time of year feels electric.
Halloween - or Samhain to the pagans - marks the Celtic new year, so it's no wonder that it feels like everything is pulsing with potential. Mysteries lay just around the bend. Magick is possible.
Letting my home be the cauldron in which I marinate reinforces the cozy "at home-ness" we all want but few of us actually have. Even though there are social activities up the wazoo to engage in this month, I just want to spend time watching my favorite things and cooking my favorite things in the place where I feel most myself.
It just so happens the place I feel most myself looks like a backlot at Universal Studios.
That's why my recent conversation with Matt Barrios was so fascinating. A few years ago, Matt recognized that home is a place of social renewal, and if he could study and then recreate the ways in which people around the world create a sense of "at home-ness" for themselves, it could transform the quality of life for people on a massive scale.
I loved this interview because it demonstrates yet another example of a person combining what they love and are curious about into a never-before-seen career description. Not only that, it will give you some actionable ideas about how to create "at home-ness" for yourself.
Spending your entire paycheck at a Spirit Halloween store is not required.
P.S. Oh, and by the way, since Halloween IS my favorite holiday, I'm offering a special 10% discount at my store for multi-passionates until October 31st. Now is the perfect time to swipe some shiny object swag for you and your ghouls! 👻 👻 👻
Don't sign up for this newsletter!
I'm serious. Down the Rabbit Hole with Jennie O'Connor helps multipotentialites build lifestyles from their passions, amplify their wealth & achieve personal freedom. Go sign up for Sally's Knitting Newsletter instead.
“In for four, hold for four, out for four,” the girl at the checkout counter said, not even looking up from the cheekies she was scanning. It was both comforting and unsettling that someone having a panic attack in line at Victoria’s Secret seemed like just another Tuesday to her. I don’t know what burnout looks like for other people. For me, it looked like trying to pretend I wasn’t having a heart attack while buying underwear. It meant sobbing uncontrollably when a sparrow collided with the...
When my best friend was 10 years old, his mom washed his mouth out with soap. It's not the act itself that made a lasting impression, though. It's the fact that in the middle of his punishment, the phone rang. With a stern warning to my bestie not to move a muscle, she went to answer it. My friend waited obediently, drool coursing down his chin onto his t-shirt, crying silent tears for five minutes. Then ten. Then twenty. It took her other son tugging at her sleeve, eyes wide with pity for...
I know what you're thinking, Reader. Who's this stranger in my house? And by house, I mean inbox. And by stranger, I mean someone who looks a lot like an old friend who's "had some work done." And you wouldn't be wrong; there's been a major overhaul in this corner of the Internet. Only it didn't require a scalpel and six month's salary. My brand, Jennie O'Connor Creative, got a facelift. From the rebranded newsletter you see above 👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼 To the retired podcast, the best episodes of which will...