Paradise Found
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Holy cow, is it ever getting heavy up in here. Just to prove that I'm not about to jump off a cliff or listen to "mmm mmm mmm" by the Crash Test Dummies on loop, I have a happy tale to tell.

It's about my ongoing search for a mature, stylish, structured satchel handbag. Male readers, you're more than welcome to jump ship right about now because it only gets worse.

A couple months ago, I started to intensely dislike my current choice of handbags. (not surprising given that I usually buy whatever I gravitate to, without any thought as to form or function in the long term - which lends itself to the collection of completely random handbags, all of which can only be worn in one particular situation) After much thought and consternation, I hit upon a gaping hole in my handbag collection: the swing bag. And by "swing," I mean, "a bag that I can use for work and also take out to happy hour without being embarassed." Something that held my big wallet, cell phone, iPod, keys, a book, with a bit of room to spare. It seemed this was an impossible feat to accomplish - particularly considering how picky I am.

And by "picky," I mean "don't even suggest anything that remotely resembles a diaper bag." I really wanted to be able to use this bag WELL into the future - so it also had to straddle the line between stylish and trendy. I know myself, and if it looks dated in 10 years, I'll get rid of it. It needed to be as timeless as possible.

After two months (no joke) of searching high and low, after a month of intensely raking through every respectable retail outlet known to man, I found her. The Flatiron Satchel at Banana Republic, of all places. It has just enough pockets, the right amount of hardware (in gold - my favorite!), the zippers are substantial and durable, and despite having two handles (something to which I was initially opposed), I love love love it.


Thanks to holiday giftcards, I managed to spend almost nothing on it, which only made my new handbag euphoria more intense. After a week of indoors-only testing (just in case I hated something about it and needed to return it), I realized that we were meant to be.

And we've been together ever since. Awwww.