Just What is all the Fuss with Handbags / Purses?

Purses perplex me.  I don’t mean those little portable pockets to hold change.I mean bags, handbags or whatever other name may give them added value.  And valuable they are.  The most expensive one I found is this little treasure – Mouwads Handbag which sells for a nice 3.8 Million.

Mouawads Handbag

I am not sure what women see in handbags and here I am a woman so you think I would have been let in  on the secret.

When I did a little research I read articles that said the handbag for women really came into being as an accessory in the early 19th century.  Or maybe it was the late nineteenth century.  I must confess it really doesn’t interest me at all.

I guess it is because of my disinterest that I even wanted to blog on the subject.  I am sure there is a missing ‘girly gene’ because I just can’t get excited about handbags.  I can’t even garner up surprise or indignation that these objects can cost so much.  I did read some articles that said the handbag has existed in some form since early civilization, but again my disinterest may have caused me to read the information incorrectly.

One article started by saying that women cannot live without their purses.  It has occurred to me more than once that purses must have been an invention of early man.  That in some way it keeps women subservient.  This sure is not male bashing as I happen to adore men, but think about this.

A man strolls along moving both arms at his sides.  He is not burdened down by anything (except for those males who choose to use manbags), he is free to run, move about freely, he never has to worry about putting it down and forgetting it or having it stolen, - do you get where I am going with all this ‘free’ ‘freely’ stuff? – while the woman must occupy at least on arm with said bag.  Even if she carries a bag over her shoulder or across her chest she is burdened down.

Diane Mapes at today.com says “Huge purses are an emotional crutch”

From the same article comes this quote, “The big purse full of stuff is not only a woman’s home away from home, it’s a reflection of the woman’s role as caretaker, says Linda Abrams of the Philadelphia-based Council for Relationships.’

I know all you purse loving women are  great people.  I have dear friends and family who love those bags and it makes them feel good to go out accessorized. I just don’t understand it.  The article link above really gets into the psychology of why women carry big bags and frankly I think it is a bunch of nonsense.  Mape does a good job of reporting but oh my there is a certain insanity to much of what some people think.

My blogging friend Kathy McCullough started my thoughts when she posted

7 Signs of Bag-Lady Chic:  A Confession in Photos.  Now there folks is a lady who has bag common sense with a great deal of style.  Now that I can get into.

I have come to the conclusion that women who carry handbags do it because a) they like it or b) it serves some useful purpose, and I will  admit some might do it because it is the style and or everyone else does it.

Do I carry?  Yes.  Sometimes.  Occassionally I will catch myself and throw the thing in the closet or the trunk of my car.  After all, I want to be as free as a man is.  Hmm seems to me women have fought That Fight in the past.

 

The Perfect Day

What is a perfect day for you?

For some I imagine it a day full of unbelievable surprises like winning the lottery, or giving birth, or meeting your soul mate, or finding your inner strong self.  I suppose it could be a raise at work or recognition for a job well done or maybe just not getting caught in the wide arc of fecal material after it hit the rotary blades.

For those with devastating illnesses or acute/chronic pain or heartache it could just be a day where nothing gets worse than it already is and you have the strength to just be.

What is a perfect day for you?

Me? I had one of those days yesterday and the one word to describe the perfection? It flowed. No bumps, no tantrums, no surprises. It flowed and felt smooth. I surprised myself when this thought occurred to me last evening. No drama. A welcome peace. I imagine my description of a perfect day even a year ago would have been different.

What is a perfect day for you?

6 of 7

One of the great pleasures of serial stories is the satisfaction of starting a reread from the beginning and not having to wait for the publication of the next edition. There is flow with anticipation dependent only upon your rate of speed in gobbling up the goodies served with each novel. There are a few series I enjoy, the latest being Harry Potter. My sis had acquired all the books I was missing to complete the set of seven and what a thrill to close one book and immediately pick up the next. Even if completion of one occurred in late evening I immediately started the next, just for the satisfaction of reading what came next. Well imagine my consternation and confusion when I went to the book shelf and could not find number six, ‘The Half Blood Prince.’
It wasn’t enough to cause a case of cursing but it threw me off my stride. Where could it be? A quick search through out the place revealed nothing except for a missing sock, which I assumed had been eaten and digested by the washer sometime ago.
Through the course of the reread I had also completed two of the Stieg Larsson series about ‘The Girl’: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who played with Fire. I am patiently waiting for the third and last book as it winds it’s way through my reading group. It’s a reasonable wait, but number six? I was sure I had all my ducks in a row so to speak.
I reached out for the seventh book, The Deathly Hallows a few times, but it just didn’t seem right you know? I searched my data memory bank and am pretty sure it was in a load of reading I had taken to my sisters. At least I am counting on it being there. Last night I started number seven, too impatient to wait but the universe is a little askew. There is an uncomfortable feeling like the way you feel when you know you should have done something and did not, or you did something and should not. It’s nothing major in the big scheme of things but it niggles. Niggles is such a perfect for those little irritations, which makes me think of muggles, which makes me think of number six.  Sigh

My Friend Joss

My friend Joss is an author.  She lives in eastern Canada and today I got to have lunch with her and her friend Christine.  Joss is visiting southern Ontario and happened to be spending part of that time here in Hamilton, hence the opportunity for us to meet.  I have followed Joss’ wordpress site here almost since I started blogging.  Initially it was her poetry and witty, common sense approach to life and events that drew my interest.

Then we discovered we had more than mutual adoration in common; we shared the challenge of coping with and conquering fibromyalgia.  Well conquering is perhaps a little misleading as one never does conquer; one learns to live with and adapt and Joss has done this amazingly well.  It never goes away but it can be tempered and Joss has been flare-up free for almost ten years.  Me?  I have done well since 1986 but I cannot list any particular number of years as being flare-up free however I am continuing to learn and much of that learning has been via Joss.  She talks about it being a journey and that it is and oh my, like any journey it is better because of the folk you meet along the way who provide encouragement and support.

Thank you for your wonderful book Joss and for your personal support!

Her new book ‘What I Know About Fibro’ provides information and inspiration and I encourage anyone who has dealt with pain in any form to read it!

Now please note that below the table has no food on it but I swear we had a delightful lunch!

Monday Mayhem or Is It?

When the Mamas and the Papas sang “Monday Monday” the Monday mornings were fine, the Monday evenings not so much.

At Psycentral.wordpress.com Dr. Gary Wood did a nice piece in January about our perception of Monday and the Monday Morning Blues and gives us a few ideas about changing it.

It’s not just Mondays that are affected by perception of course, it is very single itsy bitsy thing in our lives including ourselves.  I like to play around with thoughts of what is real and what is reality anyway, but today the thought is about Mondays because I find it just plain fascinating.

All through my career my love of Mondays was sort of an optimistic hangover from Friday afternoons?  See?  I wasn’t too crazy about Friday mornings as those were reality mornings when the reality was…hmm, I may be losing you here.  Let me try to explain from the beginning, if in fact a circle can have a beginning. (Of course it does, because we perceive it to)  Oh!  Unless you perceive it to not have a beginning, which makes me wonder if that is more a negative perception?  But is there really such a thing as a negative perception or just a different one?  Difference does not have to be negative or positive does it?  It just can be.  I think.

Back to my point.  Mondays I started the week with goals for the week ahead.  I loved that feeling of having direction and it gave me some sense of security.  And hope. And optimism.  It was wonderful.  Friday mornings alas, I had to review what I achieved and what I did not and at times felt somewhat down (never severe enough to be called disheartened).  But oh joy when Friday afternoon I took my favorite hour of the day to set goals for the next week, building on my achievements of the previous week.  It was a great time to review and plan and felt darn good.  So when everyone else left on a Friday afternoon with a big smile on their faces because it was the weekend, I too left happy to enjoy a couple of days before I could start my well planned week!

I have missed that since retiring but I have an immense satisfaction that when Monday morning rolls around I am there to teach my grandson to look forward to his day and his week.  I ask him, “Gee, I wonder what new things you will learn this week?”  And as I watch him cross the school yard weaving a wobbly adventurous path as only eight year olds can do, I notice the spring in his step and my heart does its own little song and dance of joy.

Five Minute Friday; The Gypsy Mama; Good-Bye

Around here we write for five minutes flat on Fridays.

We set a timer, throw caution to the winds and try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.

Want to play Five Minute Friday? It’s easy peasy!

1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt- no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking

2. Link back here and invite others to join in.

3. Meet & encourage someone who linked up before you.

OK, are you ready? Give us your best five minutes on:  GOOD-BYE

There are so many ways to talk about good-bye since there are so many good-byes in life;  people, situations, pets, sanity (at times) and sadly youth.  Since I prefer to look at that which is different my first thought this morning was youth/change or the lack thereof.

People talk about aging gracefully, about vibrancy, about forty being the new thirty and sixty being the new forty.  Yesterday I kept a four year old busy for the day.  Outside.  In a park.  I raced, fought with light sabers (he was Anakin and I was Luke Skywalker).  You are my son he intoned throughout the day.  And occassionally he would warn me that while he was currently Annakin he would soon be going over to the dark side and become Darth Vader.  We slid on slides and swung on swings.  Did I mention we raced? This morning my body feels like it has been hit by a truck of large proportions.

There are many things we say good-bye to as we age.  I worked for many years in Long Term Care so I knew….goodbye to independence in many things.  Good-bye to night driving vision.  Good-bye to leaping like a gazelle (I am sure I did at one time), good-bye to standing up from a seated position and being able to move immediately.  Good-bye gentle thoughts on aging gracefully.  Good-bye to firm young skin and strong limbs.

But mostly, good-bye to changeability or the ability to change with little muss or fuss.

Oops times up!

Question Everything

Question Everything.  My friend Pat Cegan never ceases to amaze.  Whether you believe in conspiracy theory or not this is too well done not to view and may just inspire a little discussion.

Thank you Pat at patcegan.wordpress.com

Foolery, Tom Foolery, A Day of…

When I was young I thought April Fool’s Day a nuisance and really had  no patience for it at all.  Then I had a period where I have heartedly engaged in some sportful way.  Mostly now I like to laugh at the ingenuity of others.  You know, people who put some actual planning into it.  Its a day for pranks with a twist to the good natured side.  Not spiteful or mean.  Just funny.

I was surprised to discover the day actually has a long history to it going back as far as 1392 found in Chaucer‘s Canterbury Tales.  Wikipedia naturally has a detailed listing of it ( who are these people and how do they get such information?) and it seems to be world wide.  There are so many usual pranks but the funniest for me was that on April 1, 1698 several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to ‘see the Lions washed.’

It seems people have been sticking notes to the backs of others’ clothing for centuries, so nothing original there.  Wiki also tells us about jokes in other countries around the world. The Iranians call the day Sizdah Bedar and is stated as the ‘oldest prank-tradition in the world still alive today.  Alas France and Spain seem to largely follow tradition by sticking paper to the victims’ backs, but the Flemish have children locking out their parents and teachers and only letting them in when they promise to bring treats that evening or the same day.  Some of the countries celebrate the same idea but on different days of the year.

Perhaps it is just people saying, “Let’s have a little laugh and forget our troubles for a bit.”  I do enjoy the planning and originality of some.

Do you remember what Word Press did on this day last year?

Are you a prankster?

What is the best April Fool’s you have ever taken part in or heard of?

Happy jokester day my friends!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools’_Day

News Alert Regarding Pennies For…..

Our federal budget is out and of course there are a lot of yeah sayers and nay sayers accompanying it, but for the first time in a long time our government is a majority so its not going to matter much.  But what really did matter in yesterday’s news?  What touched the heart of this tax payer bringing a sad sigh and warm thoughts of days gone by?

The Canadian Government is getting rid of the penny.  Our copper penny.  Not surprising is the news that each one cent penny costs 1.4 cents to make.  So much in life is going to have to change.  No more putting in your two cents worth or giving a penny for  your thoughts.  And what about poor penny lane?  A penny saved was a penny earned but not for many many years now as it just wasn’t worth it.  No more pennies in the fountain.

What about bad pennies?  What will come back in their place?  What will you have if you no longer have a penny to your name?  If there are no more pennies what will heaven send us?  And will our good luck disappear altogether as in, ‘Find a penny, pick it up, All day long you’ll have good luck.’

Will the free newspaper called the Penny Saver go out of business?  Will we lose wieght as ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’?

When it comes to our daily taxes the government already rounds up the number.  Will they now just skip nickels and round up to the nearest dollar?

Will there be a penny spending spree where everyone who has gallon jugs of pennies will suddenly want them gone?  What are used pennies good for any way?

Perhaps, a penny for your thoughts?

5 Minute Friday – Gift

“Its time for the gypsy mama’s 5 minute Friday. (http://thegypsymama.com/2012/03/five-minute-friday-gift/

Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt- no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking 2. Link back here and invite others to join in.  Meet & encourage someone who linked up before you.

OK, are you ready? Give us your best five minutes on:

Gift…

::There are all kinds of gifts:  The gift of sight, the gift of speech, dancing, painting, selling, the gift of gab….. well you get the idea.  I am not thinking of a specific gift but generally wrapping it up under one – it is talent and for the life of me since I cannot figure out why one person has a certain talent and another doesn’t then I figure it must be a gift.

I wonder if luck is a gift?  Some people seem to be and others do not.  Although I have heard that if you work hard enough you will be lucky.

There are gifts that come in packages and there are people who regift which I think is a wonderful thing.  No one wants to be stuck with a gift they don’t like but everyone likes ‘the thought’ behind a gift.

The act of giving is also wonderful and yes everyone knows it is better to give than receive but I bet any 5 year old can argue that one pretty good.  I mean there is satisfaction in giving but also in receiving ..only because I know it makes the giver feel so good.  Of course.

I do wonder how I can access some of the other gifts.  The talent ones.  Just imagine….oops times up!