Put Me in Coach

A few posts back, I wrote about my addiction to Starbucks. But honestly, I need to come clean. I have another more expensive, even-harder-habit-to-break - Coach bags. They are they very leather-scented air I breathe. It's really hard to explain this obsession to someone who isn't familiar with the brand. I got my first Coach bag (a Coach Station Bag) in high school. It was the most I had ever spent on a handbag but I loved it and it went everywhere I did.

I couldn't really indulge much through college and even early in my career. A serious lack of funds prevented that from happening but I found creative ways to support my habit. When I graduated from college, I bought myself a new Coach bag. When I got a promotion or a raise, I bought a new Coach bag. I certainly wasn't keeping up with the seasons but I was still keeping up appearances. I just never fell out of love with the Coach bag.

I know it sounds crazy. It's a material object but honestly, it makes me happy. When I have a Coach bag on my arm, I walk a little taller, feel a little peppier, and have a bounce in my step. I can look back over the last 20 years and remember certain bags I carried at certain times. I can remember the bags I got as gifts, who gave them to me and why. Certain bags mark some of the milestones in my life, too like the bag I was carrying when I went to Paris for the first time as an adult (the Coach Soho Pebbled Backpack), when I left Des Moines behind for a job in Indianapolis (the Coach Leather Ergo Hobo), when I got married (the Coach Leather Buckle Flap) and the night I gave birth to my first child (a Coach Multifunction/Baby Bag). I remember handbags like some women remember what clothing they were wearing or what shoes they bought. Coach is just well, my bag.

Coach bags mean a little bit more to me these days not only because of their functionality (they have to be big and hold lots of stuff!) but because even if I'm not well dressed or put together (blame the kids!), I still feel pretty great carrying one. Take the bag I'm carrying now - that's the Julia you see in the picture at the top of this post. Isn't she cute? With a shine like that, any girl would look good.