Stiff Baby Goes to Anthropologie

Ever since I was little, I've expressed extreme joy the same way: by opening my mouth and becoming completely immobile. 

It first happened at a performance of Sesame Street Live when I was a toddler.  Big Bird came onstage, and it was all over. When my parents checked to see if I was still breathing, they also realized they could pick me up by the arms, "light as a feather, stiff as a board"-style. I was on another planet, and my body was now a catatonic place card.  "Stiff baby" was born.  

And I have stiff babied my way through several major life events, from freezing up completely when faced with show choir costume changes (I required a personal dresser) and finally getting asked to the prom, to more recent events, like a trip to the NPR headquarters and my pilgrimage to the Anthropologie flagship store in Philadelphia in July. Compare these stiff babies: 

Oh my god, y'all! News!

Oh my god, y'all! Pretty things! 

The Anthropologie flagship store lives in a converted mansion in Rittenhouse Square, the neighborhood whose facades and cobblestones and other decidedly non-Midwestern architecture left me wailing "O, where is my fortune?" every half block.  

It looked like Anthro kept many of the house's original features, like these mantles: 

The house's original mantles were stacked along the main spiral staircase.

                                             

... And this ceiling inlaid with portraits, no big deal: 

As if the building weren't beautiful enough, Anthro just had to go and add more pretty things to it, that scamp. My boyfriend walked inside with me, and as my eyes filled with one and a half fat happy tears, he promptly excused himself around the corner to Barnes and Noble.  These were all the pictures I managed to take with my stiff baby fingers without also giving myself away as the fangirl crying her way through the store. 

These garlands were a divine beam of light guiding me to
my favorite part of any store:
the housewares.

Oh, no big deal, just some lightbulbs under glass
that somehow look beautiful there.

I left with a ruffly yellow dress (from the enormous sale room!) and some new hairpins.  My change-of-address cards -- I'm moving in -- are still on the way.