The Twenty-Second

I have ADD. Having ADD means you will lose every coat you ever own until college. As well as a lot of other things.

But before you weep for my sorry fate, it is not all tragic. I learned a great lesson from all those long years of loss: do not carry things in your hands.

In accordance with this rule, I have been shoving absolutely everything into my pockets and strapping everything that is larger than a pocket to my body. This has served me very well; I've not lost anything, and my hands are always free.

However, now I am a grown-up (of sorts), and grossly distorted pockets displaying key/cell/pencil/nailclippers/tissue wad-shaped bulges are not as sleek and professional-looking as they could be. Nor are messenger bags.

No, I'm afraid it is time for me to foray into the world of purses, even though that means constantly carrying something very important in my hands. I will just have to adapt again. Like those Galapagos birds.

Now, until yesterday, besides feeling very sure that L should stop buying $500 purses if she intends to keep complaining about how broke she is, I knew nothing about purses. I've just never, ever considered them. Though I've been trying to bring up the quality of my wardrobe overall, purses hadn't even occurred to me until I ran across this bag while looking at outfits on polyvore:












I generally see bags and think, "My, there's a lot of fringe and buckles on that." But this one was pretty cute! Serviceable-yet-sleek, and vaguely reminiscent of farm life. But of course it turned about it be a wildly expensive Coach bag.

And I would prefer it with old-and-warm-yet-shiny-and-sleek leather like this anyway:









And then I found this:












I don't actually like it. The clasp clashes horribly with the rest of it, and it's all a bit...rough. But I really like the generally tough vibe coming from overlapping thick strips of worn leather with hardware. It's so the opposite of what a purse usually is.

I just want the hardware to be as fitting as the Coach bag's, the leather to look like the football's, and the overall design to be more effortless (like the Coach bag's).

You can see how I've wasted hours at this.

There is a silver lining, though: if my epic searches ever do result in such a bag, carried in my hands or not, there is no WAY I'll lose it.