Consumption Lounge: Mercury Retrograde Edition
5 things to consume during your Analog August digital detox
Hey everyone,
It’s Mercury Retrograde AND Virgo season AND Venus is in retrograde! Also, it actually doesn’t matter if you know what any of that means because it’s happening whether you like it or not.
Weed astrology is a bit of a silly cosmic skillset to have in my back pocket, but it truly has become a sixth sense. For example, I knew that Virgo season was around the corner without even looking because I found myself instinctively going to town on a bunch of incredibly mundane, but essential organizational tasks, such as deep cleaning everything, including my computer desktop, purging the dark recesses within my apartment, and settling a tab with the IRS that I didn’t even realize I had.
Virgos are by nature hard-working, almost borderline OCD individuals who are as creative and nurturing as they are stubborn and critical. They’re very quietly neurotic people, which makes sense if you consider the environment in which they were born into: end of summer, just before harvest, quietly reaping the last of summer warmth before they fade into the long months ahead. When Virgo season is time to shine, it means vacation time is over: it’s down to business.
As earth signs, these are very grounded people, but they also carry a lot of internalized anxiety from being overly analytical perfectionists, making them not very good stoners. Usually set after the smallest puff or two, if I was going to get a birthday gift for a Virgo, it would be low-dose, heavy indica gummies to help them pass out and actually get a good night’s sleep for once, or a CBD topical to chill the F out.
On that note, I do think that if people reframed their view of astrology to consider it a different—albeit emotional—translation of the Farmer’s Almanac, they might actually believe it is a “real” thing and acknowledge that the movements of the sun, moon, and changing of the seasons all have an impact on our personal modes of operation. Coincidentally, Virgos are also the type of people who would say astrology isn’t real, but also entertain an astrology reading just to see if their chart lives up to their own lofty expectations.
Mercury Retrograde, the astrological phenomenon where the planet gives the illusion of moving backwards when it’s not, almost feels like a disruption in the space-time continuum. When Mercury—associated with communication and intellectual pursuits—goes retrograde, you can expect to see a lot of delayed action and mixed messages. For Virgo season, that means a lot of work disruption. So, point being: if you’re still lost or get a random email that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry. Just remember that it’s Mercury Retrograde and that I am high.
Anyway, this month’s Consumption Lounge comes to you a bit late, as I was partially participating in Analog August—a ritualistic digital detox celebration I began in 2021 in hopes of finishing the Next Great American Novel, catching up on some books, or simply finding inspiration by wandering through a magical art forest. Some of that has happened, I guess, though not quite in the way that I imagined (like actually finishing a manuscript).
Analog August was partially inspired by Jami Attenberg’s #1000wordsofsummer, an annual framework encouraging writers to churn out 1,000 words per day over the course of summer to complete a book. It’s a pretty smart idea and a very achievable daily goal, but unfortunately it’s also a challenging one. Catching up on lost income from the pandemic compounded with a generally shit job market has generally kept me from fulfilling this goal (ironically as I write a newsletter that will surely be 3,200 words), and partially why I decided to get my Pilates teaching certification as a financial safety buffer (I can already feel those future summer writing sabbaticals in South France in this convoluted fantasy I’ve created in my mind!). Mostly, Analog August is an excuse to disconnect and spend more time in the real world.
That said, I have been doing a lot of writing behind the scenes. Right now, I’ve got new feature out in the summer travel issue of Different Leaf about cannatourism in the Bay Area and another coming soon about all of the fabulous things you can do in Las Vegas in the fall issue of The Red Bulletin. Otherwise, most of my time has been at the studio, looking cute and wearing athleisure wear, and generally doing Pilates-y stuff. ICYMI, I’ve been offering free sessions this month via my other newsletter PilatesxCarly to jumpstart my new business and can’t wait until teaching becomes so engrained in my hippocampus that I hate it like every other job. That’s when your brain finally frees up to write the Next Great American Novel.
Because of the aforementioned preoccupation with Pilates and general daily grind, admittedly I didn’t consume a whole lot this month. So, here are some ideas for how to make the most of Mercury Retrograde:
August Consumption Lounge
Consume Less, Give More (Specifically Hawaii)
Unless you’ve had your head in the sand for the past month, the devastating wildfire situation in Hawaii charring the island of Maui has been dire. Adding fuel to the fire are the empathetically challenged tourists who seem hell bent on continuing to pour into this traumatized place to take in every last drop of the island’s remaining amenities, creating a divided stance on whether tourists—who make up a substantial bulk of the Hawaiian economy—hurt or help small businesses with their presence or patronage. That’s why I think donating to the Hawaii Community Foundation is a safe act of solidarity where you can ensure your money is doing some good.
Swap, Don’t Shop
This past weekend, I made a last minute decisions to go to a clothing swap in Williamsburg I found on EventBrite. Mostly because the idea of scheduling brunch annoys me, but I still felt like I need to do something with my day. On the way, I passed someone that I had dated over 5 years ago and pretended to not see each other (which was weird), then circled the park three times before I finally found the swap.
I arrived to a group of women encircling a communal blanket, hungry for whatever was in my bag. They barely made eye contact or said hello as I began feeding garments of clothing to the pile, like throwing chum into a cage of sharks. Deciding I didn’t like the energy, I made a beeline to Beacon’s Closet—a place that has a temperamental relationship with my personal aesthetic—recouping a store credit of $31 that I will undoubtedly blow on something that I will wear once at best before trying to offload it again. Because it is recycled, I feel no shame about this confession.
Point being: please organize a better swap.
Send Snail Mail
Did I actually spend $70 on stationary and commemorative stamps when I was high last week? I had finished the tail end of a roach from one of three mystery joints I had picked up at a gray area smoke shop in Chinatown before embarking on my bi-weekly ritual of taking the most glorious walk from the West Village to the East to swing by the East Village Postal to pick up mail. Reaching into the small box, I pulled out a colorful, handwritten note from a dear friend covered in Barbie stickers that inspired to write one back.
At a time when we often become so busy and distracted that we forget to text back our friends, a thoughtful letter is a welcome surprise. Plus, the limited edition stamps from USPS are cool?
Here are a few I like:
Take a Trip
Koi, a CBD company that produces a broad spectrum CBD balm that I adore (and heals cuts and scraps practically overnight) has moved into the psychedelics game with a new like of MusciMind nootropic gummies using a nanoemulsified blend of Muscimol extract, Lion’s Mane, hostilis bark, HCI-PEA, L-Tryptophan, Rhodolia extract, and Vitamins B12 & D3 in three candy flavors. Micro- and macro-dosing is super easy with instructions to help best choose your own adventure. And they’re available to ship nationwide!
Get Scrappy
End of season harvest means we’re quickly approaching dreaded root vegetable season. About a week ago at the farmers market, one of my favorite bakers (Off The Wheat) let me know on the DL that she was packing pumpkin muffins and I absolutely was not ready to let go of summer. It’s coming, y’all. The pumpkin spice is real. This is your warning call to start stocking up on last minute zucchinis, heirloom tomatoes, berries, and bell peppers before you spend the next half-year making yet another ugly-delicious stew. My go-to tomato sauce recipe is Mark Bittman’s, where the secret weapon is anchovy fillets, that I will frequently toss in mushrooms or other accoutrements, then dress zucchini boats (apparently Thomas Keller’s recipe has gone viral on the internet to mixed reviews).
MORE FROM THE CONSUMPTION LOUNGE
Consumption Lounge: 16 Essential Buys For July Summer Travel
Consumption Lounge: 15 Things You'll Actually Want to Consume in June