Mar 22, 2006 17:06
the first time that i saw a girl carrying a vera bradley bag, i thought "someone got stuck with her granny's old bag. how unfortunate. and she's carrying it around like it's something from coach or nine west. how weird. maybe she really loved her granny." then i noticed another girl with one. and then another. suddenly, vera bradley bags were regularly marching around on the shoulders of young women across campus.
so clearly lots of girls like this vera bradley thing. clearly this was a trend of some sort. no worries, i'm good at finding dislikable things about trends, ie the boys with long hair trend. don't get me wrong, i'm just as fond of the shaggy, tossled-just-got-out-of-bed thing as the next girl, but sometimes i just can't tell if it's a guy or girl from behind. the longish hair (usually hitting just below the shoulder, and curly/wavy) compounded with a modest to skinny build, pea coat, and messenger bag results in my second-guessing the person's gender. this can't possibly be desirable. i mean, i doubt any guy wakes up in the morning and thinks to himself "i know! i'm going to be gender ambiguous today! brilliant!" um, no. no no no. that is just wrong. and God help you if you're a guy possessing delicate features...then, not only can i not tell your gender from the back, but also from the front: are you a pretty guy, or an ugly girl? for the love of gender differentiation, JUST PICK ONE, WOULD YOU?? be what you were born! is that so much to ask?!?!
[ahem] but i digress. back to the vera bradley thing. right.
i noticed that these bags were traveling en masse, usually slung around by fashionably mismatched sorority girls with sideswept bangs and chewing gum lodged firmly between molars. and, let's face it, sorority girls are not your stereotype of college classiness; when someone mentions tri-delts, i pretty much think drunken hos. (but i'm sure they're very nice drunken hos.) so i thought "huh. stupid sorority girls. don't they realize that they're carrying around glorified diaper bags? how silly." i refused to be a sheep--no sororities or vera bradleys for me! i mean, who is this vera bradley anyway? who does she think she is, proliferating her stupid bags among girls like diseases in frat row? what possessed her to think that making quilted bags be a good idea? (granted, they are quilted bags with a flair.) but paisley?? honestly, who likes paisley?! and paisley in multiple colors?! that sort of gaudy print belongs way back in the 70s, not today! i firmly told myself that i would never get a vera bradley; not only are they unsightly, but they are also highly overpriced.
and then i saw it. simple drawstring bag, with white jasmine flowers tastefully placed on a black background. carried by a tall, austere-looking blonde. i fell in love so hard, my first impulse was to go out and buy one just like it (the bag, not the blonde). i struggled with deep inner conflict: on the one hand, i had to uphold my principles! (i was never going to get a stupid vera bradley bag! i refused to be like those other girls!) but on the other hand...it was such a beautiful bag. (what a lovely pattern! and i'd been looking for a nice, serviceable and attractive drawstring tote!) after a tense battle between mind and heart, i succombed to the bag's charms. when i got back to my room, i googled "vera bradley bags," looked up my crush on the her website (website! she has a freakin' website!)
love never fails to disappoint me. my heart was stomped on by the words retired july 2004. my coveted bag had been off the market long before i'd even discovered its charm. i was heart-broken. it and i would never be together.
i spent several months vera bradley-less. i retreated back to my old standby of "expensive quilted bags are silly," and for the most part coped with it with a normal and cynical fashion. but deep in the back of my mind, i was thinking "oh, but i wish i had one."
two nights ago, i was procrastinating on my paper, and found myself back at the website. carling has several vera bradleys, received as gifts and won from raffles. she likes them very much. she has the drawstring tote! she said that it was quite useful, and demonstrated its various practical features. so i shared my bag woes with her, to which she said "have you looked on ebay?"
ebay. now, why didn't i think of that? "uh oh," said carling. "i think i've started something bad."
i found it on ebay. $61 of unrequited love on my computer screen. good gigantous garbanza beans. i don't think i've ever even considered spending 61 dollars on anything before, much less a drawstring bag. (but it is a beautiful bag.)
for those who know me, you know that i can't ever come to a decision about anything without consulting several people until they tell me to just go and buy the stupid thing and shut up. so i asked my roommate. i asked daniel teasley. i asked an actual sorority girl (but a really really nice and not-slutty one). i asked kevin yang. finally, i called my mother, and she being the wonderful and understanding person that she is, said "well, why not? it's your money, not mine." and so, after two days of fighting the forces of frugality and logic, and i went back to ebay and pressed the "buy it now" button. i filed my purchase away in my accounting spreadsheet under "BAG. $61. chevy chase card."
so today, i spent $61 on a vera bradley. that's rather an extravagant amount to spend on a bag. part of me is going "vicky! you idiot! not only did your compromise your values, but your money could have gone for a much better cause! like feeding hungry children in kazahkstan who don't even know what bags are!" but the other part of me is just...kind of excited. i can't wait to see the package slip in my CSU box. i tell myself that i'll donate money to a charity and make up for it. nothing like guilt to open the wallets.
it better be everything i hoped for and more. but i mean...how can it not be, right?
aaah! [giddy]