Today I coveted this bag

I went into DSW (after trying Ross and Marshall) looking for a replacement for the giant Nine West shopper tote that I bought in the Marshall's in Santa Rosa for ten dollars (original retail price: $110--I kept both the Nine West MSRP tag and the Marshall's tag as part of my bargain shopper trophy collection).

This giant tote (RIP) held my laptop, my notes, a book or two, my lunch, my dinner, my wallet, some makeup, a hairbrush, a water bottle, and a commuter coffee mug. All in one bag. It weighed like three million pounds when it was ready to go to school with me, but go to school it did, faithfully, for a full three months or so before the zipper broke and it got a little hole in it: evidently, "shopper tote" means it's not supposed to hold three million pounds day in and day out. Now it has to retire. Also, there are some pen marks on it. Also, I want to buy a new school bag.

(My giant tote [RIP] even magically had the same exact print as M's suitcase that she brought when she came to visit me. She also brought an awesome red bag for me as a thirtieth birthday present, filled with thirty pair of socks and thirty ponytail holders. This bag goes everywhere with me now but school, because even though it's an awesome big bag, it's not big enough for laptop plus lunch plus dinner plus all that other stuff. But on days when I just have clinic shifts, or when I don't have school, I get complimented up the wazoo on it.)

So today, I was out and about looking for a new bag, with high hopes of finding another perfect bag that was ten dollars with a hundred-dollar markdown. I couldn't find one I liked enough at all, let alone one in my price range. Finally I found this one, which is beautiful, and whose cavelike capacity might actually even exceed that of the giant tote. However, the price tag said that even though it was reduced because this was, after all, the Discount Shoe Warehouse (or whatever DSW stands for) it was still, oh, a few hundred dollars more than my ten-dollar retired tote. Definitely not a bargain, and I am a pretty committed bargain shopper, and also on a student budget, and those facts should have ruled out this bag. But I stuck around DSW and pretended to browse, petting the bag at intervals. The inside
is some fake suede stuff that feels like a new puppy. The outside is this buttery weathered-looking brown leather that kind of matches my totally awesome boots, which I wear all the time:

But! I was strong, and eventually I walked away. I am a proud finder of killer deals first and a lover of big, beautiful, puppy-soft, buttery bags second. I walked away, and then came home and combed ebay with the intensity of a jonesing crackhead looking for that bag for like twenty bucks. It may not have happened today, and it may not happen tomorrow--but it will happen.

Or maybe it won't. But what's more fun than bag shopping?