In high school I LOVED the color blue. EVERYTHING that could be blue, was blue. Clothes, bedroom, bed, bathing suits, etc. Blue carried over into college. Junior year I transferred to the University of Michigan where, while shopping at Ikea for new bedding and apartment necessities, blue faded to red. The romance with red lasted until the following summer when a green purse started a new love affair. And then there was Yellow. There was no "ah ha" moment with yellow. A few years ago I splurged on a yellow Roxy bikini and I've been flirting with the color ever since. The occasional yellow bouquet of flowers from Andrew, a yellow shirt, etc. Perhaps the depression of being locked in the architecture studio for 2 years spurred a desire for something bright and cheerful in my life. My favorite bachelorette Ali sealed the deal. When she premiered on The Bachelor she wore a beautiful yellow gown. As the season went on we found out her favorite color was yellow, and it showed up in all of her adorable yellow outfits. After the season ended, flirting with yellow became more and I fell in love. I began hunting for a new purse, a yellow purse. The criteria: bright yellow, leather, soft, shiny. About a month later I received a picture message of a bright, yellow, shiny, soft leather purse from a girlfriend who was on a shopping trip with her roommate. That was my purse. I jumped online to look for it, NOTHING. I searched around downtown shops, stores, malls and still came up empty handed. It seemed the more I shopped the less yellow there was all together!
Saturday was my birthday. I celebrated with my family the night before with a dinner date and Baskin Robins ice cream cake. I spent the following day with a few friends on the lake wake boarding and wake surfing. Andrew was denied his request for time off and did not arrive until the bonfire later that night. The fire did not last long, most of us were exhausted from all the fun in the sun. Andrew helped me clean up around the fire pit then instructed me to wait for him in the kitchen. I would have fallen asleep on the counter if it wasn't for all his rustling and bustling in the living room. He took my hand and led me to a huge display of yellow. Yellow flowers, two yellow gift bags with yellow tissue paper, and three yellow boxes. Inside each package was a yellow purse! Each bag was filled with a NineWest purse and each box with a COACH purse. That's right, 5 yellow purses and for my birthday I got to choose one. The "picture message purse" was among the quintet which should have made my choice easy, right? WRONG! Even Andrew knew that choosing a purse would be difficult for me, I'm not the fastest decision maker. So I started the process of elimination. One purse was leather, but not soft or shiny or bright. The next to go was a COACH purse with brown and yellow signature fabric. There were two leather purses left, both bright, both shiny, but only one was soft. So then I was left with the "picture message purse" from NineWest and a COACH purse. The dilemma...
I have never in my life considered buying COACH. Why? Most COACH purses cost about $300. A, I cannot afford a $300 purse. B, if I could afford to spend $300 on something, it would most certainly not be a purse. I've also never really been one for brand name merchandise. At 11 years old, when brand names started to matter, I was not skinny enough or wealthy enough to buy clothes at Abercrombie and Fitch. I teased my shopaholic, size 0 sister whose entire wardrobe spelled A&F, out of my own insecurity. I built my defense claiming that I did not need to be a walking label to be cool, have friends, or fit in. Especially when I realized how ridiculous my peers looked showing up to school wearing the same $50 graphic T as the person sitting next to them. I lived by the anti brand name priciple for some time, and in some ways I still do.
I had made up my mind. The yellow leather purse, the "picture message purse", the purse that fit my criteria would be the purse for me. I put the COACH purse back in the box and closed the lid.
So why did I pull it out the next morning? I took the stuffing back out of the purse and filled it with the things from my old black purse. Everything except for my car keys went into the purse, and it was tight. I put the purse on my shoulder and turned toward the mirror. SO CUTE. This purse, though not shiny and leather, is yellow and adorable! Something is drawing me back to this purse, simultaneously something is also holding me back from saying yes to this purse. Back to square one. I asked my mom, sent picture messages to my sister, I even asked my brother. I asked Andrew, who teased me even though he KNEW this would happen. "If it helps," he said, "I did not spend $300 on those COACH purses, I got quite a deal." Nope, not helping, though I was relieved to know that he had his head on straight enough not to spend $300 on a purse for me. He even suggested that I just buy the cheaper one and keep them both. DEFINITELY not helping! I do not NEED two purses, though I do want both. I would never buy COACH for myself, but this is a gift. The leather one is so fun, the COACH one is so pretty. The COACH one doesn't really fit all my stuff, why do I carry so much crap in my purse anyway? The COACH one is yellow fabric and will get dirty, the leather one is yellow leather and will get dirty. If I don't get it now, I will probably never own a COACH purse again in my life, do I really care about owning COACH? The leather one is everything I wanted in a yellow purse, I didn't know I wanted this other purse.
It all seems trivial though doesn't it? How blessed am I that my biggest dilemma this week has been which yellow purse I should choose as my birthday gift? How blessed am I that my boyfriend went PURSE SHOPPING for me and found 5 yellow purses for me to choose from? Kudos on that, by the way.
As of now I still have not decided on a purse...
