By the time I got down to the Farmers Market yesterday, it was already in the 90s. I bought half a peck of peaches first, and trundled around the square carrying them, adding bitter melon, cucumber, and green beans. The salad line was way too long again, and the peaches were too heavy, so I quit after that and went back to my car.
I got up with the sun this morning to turn some of those peaches into peach butter and pie before it gets too hot, but I have to drink my tea first.
So, with a trunk full of fresh produce, I went to buy a handbag for #2 daughter’s birthday.
I went first to Target, because I had to go to the pharmacy anyway, and get a top-up card for #2 son’s phone. After that, I went to the mall. The mall is only a medium-sized aversion for me, but this is still an extremely rare event, one that could only be undertaken for the sake of my kids.
I know the exact size of this aversion, because in the Overcoming Agoraphobia program, one of the first things you do is make a list of your top ten aversions, in order of dreadfulness. Mine range from making phone calls, which is just slightly worse than normal dislike, and merely something I put off for a few days before I force myself to do it(admittedly, it used to be a few weeks or months, but I have improved), to driving on scary roads, which is of course a nightmarish experience. The mall is not frightening to me, but I do find that I am soon seized with a feeling that I absolutely have to get out of there. I ignore it, of course, since I have Overcome Agoraphobia, but I tend to become disoriented and confused after a bit. I didn’t buy anything there, but I did look at a lot of handbags.
My specifications for this handbag were not that complicated. It had to be good leather with good construction, naturally. I wanted a reputable maker, but without any vulgar designer advertising on the outside. It needed to be stylish and a bit dramatic, but classic enough to be carried for a long time. And it couldn’t be black. After I read that in the book I wrote about earlier in the week, #1 daughter confirmed it. Carrying a black bag with everything is Simply Not Done any more.
So the first hour of my handbag shopping involved looking at row after row of purses, all of which were made of poor-quality materials and badly constructed. Most of them were festooned with excessive embellishments, which seemed to me to make them look cheap even if they were made in acceptable materials.
I left the mall and went to a smaller, more familiar shop, where I found better choices.
At this store I ran into a friend and asked her about my choices. She said she thought I needed something smaller and softer. Something, she said, like this one — and she grabbed my own bag, an olive suede number with a rounded shape and chocolate brown leather trim.
I realized that she was looking at a shorter, curvier woman with a casual style, while I was buying a bag for a taller, more dramatic girl, and felt confirmed in my choices.
I am proud to say that I steeled myself after this and went and did the grocery shopping. I was not, however, able to force myself also to go buy purple thread, so I did not do any sewing on my last summer top. I am halfway through the first Jasmine sleeve, however.
Okay, those peaches are calling my name.
“Carrying a black bag with everything is Simply Not Done any more.” Uh oh. I have only two “bags.” I have a black leather Tignanello backpack style purse, and a brown one almost exactly like it by the same maker. Maybe I should pull the brown out more.
So I guess your peaches survived the trunk oven. Take photos of your pie and butter! Mmm…
Did you ever cut up peaches, chill and serve over pound cake with whipped cream like strawberry shortcake?
One year, I bought too many peaches, and some were still there in the back of the fridge, fermenting, and making their own brandy sauce three months later. Yum!
I’m in. Can you email more concept details to me? Do you mean like sewing with a plan, but for knitting? LMK.
I’m definitely completely unsophisticated – I don’t think I’ve ever had a handbag. No, I lie. Years ago my aunt (TSLOL) gave me an evening bag/purse for my birthday (it was black) and I have perhaps used it 5 times in my life. Also, this time last year had you conquered your A?
RYC: A little optimistic I think 🙂 Also I have this terrible problem that I don’t want to stop doing what I’m doing – I started thinking about research before I had finished ballet as a kid. I’ve decided that the people who become famous in whatever their profession is are those who only have one or two things they love doing. The girls who frequent the dance school I go to,go to school and dance – that is all they do. They tell me if they didn’t go to dancing 4 or 5 times a week they would be bored because there is nothing else they want to do. I never got really good at anything because there have always been so many things I enjoy doing, and I think I have done them all at one time or another – but, I never get bored. Single-minded I am definitely not and you need to be single minded to the point of obsessional to reach those stars – I’ll just continue floating around somewhere above the ground but below the stars – and every now and then dance around merrily with those visual and auditory hallucinations..
Signing in….. a woman guilty of carrying a black bag with everything — and so very fond of that black bag that she has bought another one almost exactly like it and put it away in a dresser drawer, as insurance against the day when the first one inevitably falls apart and can’t be carried with everything (or anything) any longer. How can I live with this shame???
Can’t tell from the post whether a handbag [in my dialect, a purse] for #2 daughter was or wasn’t acquired in the course of the shopping… am hoping the perfect one [not black] was in fact found and is ready to be wrapped.