Oh My! A Dooney Tale

I hardly know what to say or who to tell.

If you know me, you know that I am a Dooney girl and always have been. When I got my first really good job, I started noticing the handbags that all these corporate women were carrying and how attractive they were. They just looked like fabulous handbags. I had to have one. I'd know that I was successful if I carried a bag like that.

So when I got my first performance bonus, I went straight to Parisian and bought a Dooney & Bourke Medium Essex bag (above). It weighs 17 pounds empty because it is really thick All-Weather Leather. It's waterproof. These purses can hold water inside, though you'd never want to. The drop on the strap is realllly long, so it is hard to keep on your shoulder when you go shopping. I wanted a smaller bag just for shopping and going to conventions and conferences. A bag that would hold the essentials but not be in my way. I wanted a red Kilty bag but when I went to purchase one, they didn't have red. I ended up with another bag entirely, the Duck bag in Fir green AWL.

This bag became my everyday companion. I carried it while the Essex bag sat in my closet. Weighing something down, no doubt. For years, I was happy with just this bag. I went on to be more successful and to make a lot more money, but I never felt the need to replace this bag.

Until I inherited some money. I bought a Coach bag. I hated it. In fact, I still hate it. I switched to a purple D&B wristlet I'd bought. For a long time, I carried a purse that was smaller than many people's wallets. Then I found a cute little pink patent leather Guess bag in a shop in Paris in Las Vegas. I loved it and carried it for about a year.

On my next trip to Las Vegas, I found the Dooney store in the Canal Shoppes at the Venetian. Oh bliss! So every time we went to Las Vegas from then on, I HAD to go to the Dooney store. The best bag I ever bought there was the day after I'd won $375 in half an hour playing blackjack. I went in and bought three bags for just under $1000. My mother was horrified. (Handbags that cost more than $10 just seem too expensive to her.) She doesn't get it. So I took one back! What was left was the Crimson Croco Medium Hobo bag. I still love this bag. I bought the matching zip-around to go with it and to use when we go gambling in Las Vegas. It's still my gambling purse since it's so easy to hook onto my belt loop or to loop over my wrist. It doesn't really fit into the Medium Hobo though, so I don't use it as a wallet. I have a small croco change purse they gave me when I made the big purchase and I use it all the time for actually holding change when I have some. But the Crimson Hobo is my very favorite handbag. The leather smells divine!

For the spring, I bought a pink and white cloth bag. Love the bag but I just cannot keep it clean. I cleaned it per their instructions, then didn't even take it outside and it still got dirty! I'm more careful with my D&B Giant Anniversary Sac. It goes out a lot and is often used as a briefcase or luggage, but being black and white, it doesn't collect the dirt that the pink bag does.

On the next visit, I bought a French leather collection bag in dark green to go with the MINI Cooper S Sidewalk cabrio I intended to buy. I was saving the bag to use when I actually had the car. Life sort of intervened, so I still have not used it!

On another visit, I bought the pink medium Luna bag and a matching wristlet. I needed a larger bag because I needed to carry more stuff around once my mom came to live with us. I hate this bag. Right away, some of the stitching started to come out. It smells like the tire department at Walmart (read: the worst possible smell you can put up with every day, really not pleasing to the senses). It did when I bought it though among all the leather bags, I couldn't smell it. Once I started to use it, I noticed it. Dooney's response was to send it back and if they couldn't fix it, they'd give me a new bag for half price. This WAS a new bag! Morons.

I'm still using it. Oh sure, I have plenty of others included the beloved and rare Crimson Croco Medium Hobo bag, a navy Calvary bag I bought on Ebay, a pink bucket bag also from Ebay, and even the green French Leather bag that has never been used while it waits for the matching British Racing Green Sidewalk to appear. But I'm stuck in a rut with that pink Luna bag.

Or I was.

Today, I got an email from D&B announcing a new sale. Since I've been so ticked off about the pink Luna, I've not even been reading or even opening their emails. If my old friend, D&B, could treat me that way, why should I even give them an opening? I don't even know why I opened it.

The little black Scotties on a red background were on sale. OK, I'll look. I looked at a few and decided to look at all of the handbags. Commemorative All-Weather Leather Collection?

Suddenly, I felt a renewal of my spirit. Maybe I CAN still be a Dooney girl! There in all it's wondrous glory is that icon of Dooneyness, the Duck Bag in Fir Green!

Be still my heart! Life will go on! I'm off to put everything back in my Duck bag and get back to the real me!