danatropicana

~ I'm doing lots of tea swaps so here's that info first:

Tea preferences: anything except chamomile or any night time sleepy teas / I love ~hibiscus~ and and would like to try any interesting black or green or white or other teas. Thanks for sharing with me!

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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~ 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.

So if any of that interests you, please let me know!

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

These are faves right now:

Carly Rae Jepsen, Rihanna, Kesha, Adele, Taylor Swift, Little Mix, FKA twigs, M.I.A., Rina Sawayama

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

But also

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

And bossa nova and Julien Doré and Tchaikovsky.

I am crafty but not artistic. My vision is getting worse and so it's hard to see what I'm doing 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 smashbooks but I only add to one sometimes and I haven't started the second.

I love to add washi and stickers to my envelopes when I send card, letters, and swaps.

I love Hello Kitty and Chococat and pretty much anything from Sanrio or San-X or any Asian company that makes cute stationery and accessories. I love cute things and anything kawaii under any definition would be greatly appreciated. I still kinda love My Little Pony:Friendship Is Magic, esp. Pinkie Pie as I believe she exhibits bipolar behavior, but any of that stuff is adorable to me ~cute!~

I love space things and UFO things.

I love animals, esp dogs and penguins and pandas.

I have a maltipoo we rescued from a shelter on Oct 11, 2014 and her name there was Baby and it still is because she's a complete baby. She supports me emotionally but not in any official way, just in the way where she has a huge piece of my heart and is almost always by my side.

I love stickers and washi for decorating mail and smashbooking.

I love vintage ephemera! Send me your old paper and stationery!

I love letter sets and greeting cards that are cute or fun or old or unusual.

I love learning about other people and their interests.

My favorite color is purple. I also love black.

I like shiny things! I will take those sequins off your hands.... :-)

I am a Gemini who kinda likes Gemini things. I don't know much about astrology or star signs but the bipolar Gemini feels like who I am.

Other interests: physics I don't understand but find fascinating like string theory; conspiracy theories; eclectic witchery; cottagecore.

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

Some favorites:

American Dad, Schitt's Creek, Ancient Aliens, Rick & Morty, It's Okay to Not Be Okay, The Americans, The Bold Type, 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. (Please don't send bookmarks as I don't read physical books!) Luckily, my library has a good eBook system and I have gotten back into reading daily.

Some favorites:

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

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (I cannot recommend this highly enough)

• Pachinko by Min Min Lee

• Anything by Banana Yoshimoto

• 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

• non-fiction: Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

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!