There are places, happy places as I like to call them, where just being there, entering that world, fake and all, calms me and lifts me, just like the lines in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”:

“What I found does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go to Tiffany’s. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there.”

My happy place is Anthropologie, full of overpriced things I rarely can afford, but that transports me and calms me. It’s like being in a home where, as the quote says, “nothing very bad could happen to you there,” Except ruin your credit, of course.

Naturally, I have other happy places, like nature, where my heart grows just watching the miracle and beauty of the California landscape. Not all is dry by the drought. Head to Marin headlands and the greenery and the ocean beyond is breathtaking. What could be more beautiful and soothing than exposing yourself to such a vast and grand space? But I don’t drive and I often limit myself to the urban scene: thus I choose “Anthropologie” as my happy place when the lens I see through that specific day is dark and grey.