MY Obsession

I am going to admit to something that some people have long suspected but I have hidden for a long while. I am a bag whore. I love them and the bigger the better.  I have now moved from handbags to luggage.

 As a teen I never carried a purse because I was not a girly girl. I had no desire to carry everything I owned with me.  My Momma and my Grandmother always had huge bags but they never carried money in them.  The money was put in their bras where it was safe.  I always wondered what they carried in their purse but as a kid we were not allowed to get in it.

It wasn’t until I hit my mid-twenties that I discovered my passion for bags.  It started innocent enough. I was out shopping with my sister and she was looking for a new handbag.  She was asking me what I thought of several of them and we debated the pros and cons of what seemed like an endless supply.  She talked to me about all the stuff she carried and I was surprised.  I had no idea that you could fit all that stuff in one bag.  I tried to figure out why she would carry half of medicine cabinet and what seemed like everything except the kitchen sink in there.  But then I found a cute little bag and couldn’t resist it and out I walked with my first purse.

I soon found that it was very convenient to have someplace to put my gum and my small wallet. Yes, I broke my family rule of carrying my money in my bra because it was embarrassing to have to search under my big boobs to get a buck.  I then came to realized that this small cute bag was too small.

I then had to shop for a slightly bigger bag. I searched high and low for the perfect bag and it seemed like it took forever but I found a medium sized bag. It fit just what I needed. You know the essentials. At this time I was only carrying my wallet, lip gloss, a book (this was an actual book), music (Walkman) and gum and mints. So a medium bag worked just fine.

My progression started out slowly.  I was doing family research which meant that I had to go to several places and needed multiply notebooks, pens, post-it notes and notes that my Momma had written out for me not to mention the directions to every cemetery, county court house and church she knew.  The never ending search began. I went to a multitude of stores not only in town but every time I went somewhere, if there was a store that I could find a bag in, I was there.

  

I think I finally found one really close to home in Target of all places. It was what they called a Doctor’s bag. Yes, the kind from tv and movies but bigger.  Everyone who saw me did a double take looking at my bag, then at me and back at the huge bag that I carried.

With the extra room I found that I began to carry even more things.  Soon I was collecting more and more bags. I had bags from every store and in a variety of sizes. My favorites where big bags, and I mean really big bags.  One of the girls I work  said she carried more and the most bizarre stuff in her bag and that she would win a contest so we sat a table and emptied our bags.

We gathered quite the audience.  We had the essentials like books, music, candy, gum, notebooks, lots of pens and pencils, makeup, medicine, sewing kits, first aid stuff, jewelry but I won with flipflops.  Yes, I had flipflops in my bag.  You can ask Mia if I am in a car I like to be barefoot.  I know it is strange but there you have it proof that I am a freak.

To this day, I get handbags or really just huge bags for gifts. I love it.  People do love to make fun of my bags but they know that if they need something there is a decent chance I have it in my bag. Then they no longer get to make fun of the fact that I carry something that you could put a small child in.  

Now onto my new passion, luggage! Again it stared out small. I needed to get a piece of luggage because I was taking a trip to Philly. Now before I had always driven to my destinations but this time I was flying so I wanted one bag and not the variety of bags that I normally carried on a trip.  I unfortunately couldn’t find a bag in time. My sister had several pieces so I just snagged one of her since it was going to be a weekend trip.

I decided that I was going to be traveling a lot more to conventions so I started the never ending hunt for luggage. I wanted something well-made and I did my research online and asked people I know and found that there was no definitive winner.   I kept looking for a couple of years with no luck.  Either was not well made or way too expensive for what I was going to get.

Then it happened I was flipping through channels and found Samantha Brown on HSN. Now, I have never watched HSN before but I had watched Samantha’s show on the travel channel so I stopped. I now know why people are addicted to HSN.  It is like crack. I just stopped because of Sam but before I knew it was unable to change the channel and ended up watching a couple of hours of them talking about Sam’s new luggage collection. I was hesitant to buy something that I personally didn’t see or touch.  Or that someone I know didn’t already have.  I waited and waited and debated and argued with myself on it. I am not going to lie it was expensive.  I just wasn’t sure about it.  Finally this year, I decided that I was going to take the plunge and buy a bag that had free shipping and was just what I was looking for.  I did read all the reviews on it and ordered that bag.

I was like a little kid at Christmas when the box arrived. I grabbed it out of the UPS man’s hands and didn’t even notice that it was a man in a uniform.  I know shocking.  I shut the door and ripped into that box like a police dog with a suspect in range.  My sister was staring at me like I was a freak but I whipped out that bag and started checking out all the pockets and was already planning on all the stuff that I could fit in there.

I carried that bag for well over a year and still love it.  Now, comes that fact that I was going to Mia’s and Savannah.  I was saving my money for the trip but I had kept tabs on Samantha’s luggage on HSN.  I had my favorites already marked for when I had the money.  When I got home from Mia’s I had a plan already in mind.

I started out small with one 21 inch bag. I packed that baby with all the clothes that I would need for a weekend trip and still had room left over.  Then HSN sucked me in with special deals on a makeup bag and wallet so yep, I ordered them too. Now because they we on special they had limited quantities so I took whatever color appealed to me the most that they still had left in stock. 

Then I found yet another bag that I loved and it was a duffle that was hard on one side and was soft on the other so I could cram even more things in it. Yet another color ordered. Then there was another computer bag that I could fit my 17 inch laptop in and yet another color. I took this luggage to NOLA with me and people loved it.  I loved that I could pack all I wanted and still have room for more stuff if I needed it.

Now, I am feeling the need to buy one bigger piece or maybe two.  I think I want a 25 inch or maybe a 28 inch.  I can’t decide but after traveling with two bags and my computer bag I think I need the bigger piece since it would be easier to check one bag instead of two and less to keep track of. 

See now you know I have a bag and luggage problem and I am not sure if there is a 12 step program for either of them. Someone please help me before my apartment is taken over!!!!

Sinfully Sarcastic,

Shmuttmeister