Good Things/Bad Things

[eohartman]

Good things about the day:
+ I went back to Petsmart today and the kitty I wrote about yesterday has been adopted! Hooray!
+ Dustin took me out to Chili's for dinner and because I had a giftcard, it only cost us $7. Hooray!
+ I got a lot of chores done around the house and I feel like things are more organized now. Hooray!
+ On Friday at 3 p.m., Dustin found out that he's now on Monday-Friday schedule, which means that we get WHOLE WEEKENDS together now. Hooray!
+Dustin started to look up treatment options for my mealworm allergy, and now I've taken over the search, and it seems like there ARE options out there that have been written about in medical journals. Hooray!
+ I met up with Sarah for lunch and we had a great time catching up for over two hours! Hooray for meeting up with old friends!
+ I gained a new LJ friend today! lady_amorika, who is not only in weddingplans, but she's also in loversfaraway, getwellgrandma, AND is already friends with almariel, so I know we'll be good lj friends. Hooray!

Bad things about the day:
- My purse, which is an army-green messenger bag I got for $2 at a Goodwill four years ago, is finally on its last string. It keeps on breaking and the compartments inside are just destroyed. I've found a replacement purse that isn't too girly, it's a messenger bag style, and has the compartments that I want. The only bad thing? It's a Vera Bradley purse. Which sucks because I don't want to pay the exhorbetant price that comes with having a designer name bag. If anyone knows of a good knockoff Vera Bradley website or resource, please let me know. I'm actually pretty pissed that I like a designer bag. I want a cheap bag, dammit!
- The new cat that we got a week ago today still isn't too happy to see me or Dustin. She's very interested in the cats and wants to play with them (although our cats still aren't too sure about her yet), but she has absolutely no interest in us. If that's the cat she turns out to be, I guess that's okay. I'll love her for who she is and all that jazz. But a bit of me hopes that the utterly terrifying look she gets in her eyes every time Dustin or I enters the same room will pass and she'll realize that we're good people and we just want her to be happy.
- I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a wedding gift for my cousin's wedding next weekend and it took me twenty minutes to check out and get my gift wrapped. And there was no one in line ahead of me! The woman who checked me out actually put my gift in the "reshelve" pile instead of giving it to me or gift wrapping it. What a silly lady. When another woman finally came over to gift wrap it, she would wrap a bit, then wander off and do something else, then come back, then wander off again. It was annoying.

Comments

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

That pattern is retired, so it's going to be expensive on ebay. If you look around, you can find some really good deals on Vera Bradley on ebay. I got a $70 villager for $40. Retired pattern and all!

As for the knockoffs, they're usually in grocery stores. They are really ugly though. And I say this not just because I love VB bags, but because they are really ugly, poor knockoffs.

[lizzie.livejournal.com]

Grrr for retired pattern. Since I'm designer brand ignorant, what exactly constitutes a "really good deal" for a Vera Bradley bag like that?

I'll have to check grocery stores. I remember I once saw a knockoff at Publix, but of course didn't stop to look at the time. I haven't seen them in there since, and that was a good 3-4 months ago. le sigh.

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

You can look at their website verabradley.com for an idea of what retail is. I never pay above retail on ebay (seems to defeat the purpose, amirite?). Retired patterns will usually go for at or a little above retail. Sometimes you get some really psycho people who push them entirely too high and that's ridiculous. The messenger is usually $80, so $43 for a retired one isn't bad at all, but I wouldn't expect that to stay that price as the auction comes to an end. You might try looking at vera_sales or vera_bradley (lmao, pimping my own community!) because people are pretty stupid in those communities and often buy more than they can afford, then pawn it off on other members for a fraction of the price so they can pay their bills. Seriously. There are so many idiots in vera_bradley I just cannot stand it.

I tell you what though, it may seem like a lot to spend $45 or so on a messenger bag, but it's worth it. The quality of those bags is amazing. I wouldn't get a bermuda though (pink or blue) because they tend to fade easily.

[lizzie.livejournal.com]

Score! There's a Michaels and a Hobby Lobby nearby that I'll have to check out.

[easter.livejournal.com]

I actually do not recommend Vera Bradley bags at all. Because they are made of cloth, I find that they get dirty pretty fast and it's hard to set them down anywhere/you have to be really uptight about where you put them. I mean, it's up to you, obviously, but I'm anal about my things looking nice for as long as possible.

I highly recommend this bag:

http://www.manhattanportage.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=84

I am also a big fan of Lesportsac, but those can be a bit pricier.

Either way, they're much more resiliant than VB bags, in my opinion.

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

The only time mine get dirty is when I forget and they go muddin' with us. They clean really easily and they also react well to scotchgaurd if that's a real issue.

[easter.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, I didn't know that. I always figured they'd dirty up quick. Oh man, bad idea now that I know that, because I love the pattern with the tiny pink elephants. :)

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

It would absolutely match your pink kitchen.... ;)

[easter.livejournal.com]

OMG, seriously.

And pink elephants are just amusing.

Your icon is awesome.

[lizzie.livejournal.com]

That's a cute bag, but I don't want anything that big. I already have a messenger-style bookbag that I used in college. I loved it, but it's certainly not the size that I need to be dragging around when I'm going shopping or something. I'll check out that site to see if they have anything smaller. Thanks for the link.

[easter.livejournal.com]

Ah....OK, cool. :)

[swingkitten9.livejournal.com]

Yaaaaay I am glad the kitty got adopted!

[lizzie.livejournal.com]

Me too. It makes me very happy.

[watchmebe.livejournal.com]

Sad, there was just that big Vera Bradley expo...

[lizzie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I didn't realize that's the kind of bag I wanted until I started searching around today. Blah.

[seestephgo.livejournal.com]

Mayhaps I can fix your old purse? I'm sure it can easily be re-lined and patched where necessary on the outside. Let me know if you want me to try :)

[lady-amorika.livejournal.com]

I get an official welcome! That's so awesome!

I can't help you with the purse thing; my best friend made me mine, and it's fabulous. Are you crafty? Is making one a possibility?

[sprixie.livejournal.com]

Come visit me and we'll go see the purse sellers on Peachtree that sell "original deisgners" for about $10-20. I know I'm supporting a crime but the real crime is charging $100-200+ for a nice purse.

[silvenwolf.livejournal.com]

I was thinking you need an excuse to visit the beautiful city of Hong Kong Island.

They create knockoffs of every single designer item possible - and 1 CAD = 6HKD.

Yay for cats being adopted - I'm not sure if my two kitties would've found a second home if I hadn't taken them, since they're way past the cute stage.

Hopefully the kitty will eventually get used to you :)