An Awkward Encounter: Goodwill Purse Edition

Hello!

As promised (in this post, specifically in the caption of this photo), I will share with you how I met the previous owner of the purse I bought at Goodwill.

However, before we get to that, I need to share something else with you. I feel like social situations have three main ways that they can go down. One way is the normal way; you know, the way pretty much everyone ever handles average everyday situations. Another way is super unnecessarily dramatically; for example, how every situation occurs in R. Kelly's Hip-Hopera "Trapped in the Closet" (Here is chapter 1 of 24... and it is not even finished, yet. He wants to add more. I once saw all the parts one weekend during my freshman year of college. Here's what I remember: any situation is worthy of bringing out a gun, everything is escalated WAY TOO QUICKLY (hence, always pulling out a gun), and a little person jumps out from a cabinet and that actually made more sense than most of the rest of the hip-hopera). Finally, there is the way that I handle social situations: as awkwardly as possible. My life might as well be the socially awkward penguin.

Source; I have accidentally told so many waiters and waitresses this...

Now, that you all know how weird I am, you will understand how I handled the whole situation. Daniel and I went to one of our favorite restaurants a couple of weeks ago, which is fairly normal, right? The woman at the counter joked that one day she would finally learn our names for our order and we awkwardly laughed with her. Then I lifted up my purse so I could reach my wallet. Suddenly, she gasped! "Oh my gosh! Can I see your purse?!" I lifted my purse to show her and she exclaimed, "Where did you get that? I have a purse just like that! Mine was my grandmother's."

That's the moment when I first realized that her grandmother's purse could now be my purse. See, I bought the purse a few weeks before this at Goodwill, because I am really hard on purses. I don't have many purses and I do not change them out until they fall apart. Being frugal, I decided that I should not spend a lot of money on a bag that I would wear out. So, I bought a purse that I could use and not feel bad about ruining.


But, suddenly, this purse was possibly this woman's grandmother's purse. I admitted to her that I bought it at Goodwill and she said, "Oh, I must have donated it. I'll have to check my house." Immediately, I offered the purse to her, because clearly it had sentimental value, it was her grandmother's. She refused, so Daniel and I went about our dinner normally.

Then, as we were leaving, she asked to see the purse again. I obliged. She looked at it closely and asked WHEN I got it. I told her a few weeks before. She said, "Oh, good. My house was broken into last week and I just wanted to make sure that someone did not steal it and then donate it. " Now, I was thinking, "Her house was broken into?! I have to give her back this purse!" So I again offered her the purse. Again, she refused. She told me that she did not really use the purse before because she had another one from her grandmother so she rather have me own it and have great adventures with it. Suddenly, the purse that I bought so I would not feel bad for ruining became the most important/ interesting/ awkward purse that I own. With that being said, expect to see it a lot on the blog...

I hope that you have a great rest of your weekend and is generally not awkward!

Rachel Cathleen

Floral Purse

Goodnight!

As promised, here is the post that almost occurred last week (even if it is coming out late this evening). Now, one thing you will learn as this blog continues is that I rarely accessorize. I have one necklace and ring that I wear almost every day; however, I forgot to pack them after winter break. This means I have to begin wearing other accessories I already own and potentially branch out to buying more (thrifted from Goodwill, of course).

This lack of accessorizing applies to bags, too. Essentially, I used to stick cash in my pocket until I got a license. That is when I had to invest in a wallet. Now that I have a wallet, I use it still instead of a purse. I tend to only use a purse when I am travelling. This has begun to change since I have acquired a beautiful floral purse from Goodwill last summer, which I cannot wait to show you!

Bag: Goodwill; Cardigan: Aritzia (old); Blouse: Hope's Door; Tank Top: old; Jeans: Kohl's.

See you tomorrow!

Time to Wander

Well, with Thanksgiving travels coming up, I decided to feature the luggage that I have purchased at Goodwill. Vintage luggage is really cool because it has gone on someone else's adventures before and will be able to go on more with you. For example, the two smaller cases in my pictures below are actually cassette tape carriers. I like to imagine that some teenager full of angst hid all of his music that his parents did not want him to listen to in them, the handles allowing him to take the music to his friend's house when they hung out on the weekends. And now I use it as a cute purse or briefcase. Buying an item second-hand gives it the opportunity to live a second life. Now it is time to wander on home for Thanksgiving...

The dress is from a boutique in the UK. All of the luggage is from Goodwill, except for the largest one which I bought from a local store, The Striped Pig. (Sorry for the low quality pictures, my boyfriend is the regular photographer with the nicer cell phone camera...)

See you next week!