Exit Stage Left

I love bags. Bags are goodness. I own a good number of bags, but unlike many of my friends I don't really see myself ever buying an expensive bag. I probably wouldn't buy a Coach or a Kate Spade, though I certainly understand why others do. Yeah, I'm cheap, but besides that, I'd simply be afraid to carry a bag worth two days' salary. I change the bag I carry with me on an almost daily basis. I try to match the bag with the shoes and the belt--the whole nine yards--though frequently I fail miserably. Being a lover of the practical I have a weakness for messenger bags or really any bag made of nylon or canvas. Manhattan Portage are my favorite. I generally buy a new one on each visit to New York, automatically building additional $50 into my trip budget.

I prefer bags with long straps that I can sling across my body, but about three years ago I realized that big bags filled with papers and books and credit cards and pens galore were really doing some damage to my right shoulder. The solution, I decided, was to begin carrying a smaller bag. I had some success with this for a short time, but eventually the papers and books and brochures and heralds and agendas and calendars and notepads... well, they all add up and a big bag is the only thing that will do the trick.

I went to a meeting today where we're asked to bring promotional materials for all our upcoming events. I'd love to reveal our budget numbers for the five, yes five, shows we have going on during the month of December, but I'm fairly certain that posting those numbers would be frowned upon, so let's just say: WE HAVE FIVE SHOWS IN THE MONTH OF DECEMBER! Sufficed to say, we have to make a lot of money. I was more than happy to bring heralds for each of the five (a captive audience is an easy target for sales) as well as our super-fantastic, absolutely brilliant brochure for the 2007 season (yeah, it was my project, but it really *is* brilliant). All that aside, when I gathered together materials for 30-40 people and tried to stuff them in my purse (an actual purse today, not a messenger bag), I realized that there was no way that they would all fit. While I was walking to the meeting and juggling arms full of paper in 40 MPH winds, I realized why women who work in marketing and PR carry such large bags: because they have to, it's necessary for the job. Perhaps my early love of big bags and resent for the back problems they cause were indicative of my career path. But, then again, maybe I just carry too much crap.