For the month of March we are challenging ourselves to write a slice every day.
Slice of Life is sponsored every Tuesday by Stacey and Ruth from Two Writing Teachers.
This post was inspired by Juliann's post, Bags, Bottles and Bundles. http://chasingstories.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/march-26-bags-bottles-and-bundles/
My life as a bag lady reached its zenith about twenty years ago when I was attending graduate school, chairing the elementary school book fair, serving on the neighborhood Watch committee, creating Camp Read-A-Lot (a school-wide book celebration), exercising at Jazzercise, and serving as Primary president (an organization for Sunday instruction of children ages 18 months to 12 years) at my local church. Bags were the perfect way to organize my materials for these various commitments and keep me sane. Whenever I left the house, I would just reach for the right bag and all my materials were right there.
I've continued this tradition with my current school roller bag, a bag for my Primary class on Sunday, a bag for the library, bags of newspapers for our art teachers, and bags for donating items to our local thrift store. This photo shows you some of my favorite bags - the Mary Englebreit bag for library books, the cupcake bag (made by a dear friend) for Sunday stuff, and my favorite bag (the navy one with green straps). They no longer make my favorite bag at Lands' End. In order to replace this bag, the following qualifications must be met: a zippered top that provides extra storage space when zipped closed, the backbone to stand up alone, handles long enough to go over my shoulders and fit over the handle of my travel roller bag, the ability to fit under the seat on the airlines, a ring for keys, and some interior pockets for organizing stuff. My old bag meets all of this criteria except for the pockets and ring for keys. Because I've used this bag for decades, I know that the addition of these two items would turn my favorite bag into the perfect bag. How about it? I'm sure that some of you are also closet bag ladies. Tell me about your favorite bag and be sure to tell me where I can get one just like yours.
I think teachers have a bag addiction. I could never pass up a free bag by the book companies when I'd go to conferences. Hence, when I retired I doled out bags to any and every one. Slowly the bag issue is resurfacing. (Might need a 12 step program for that) However, I don't have the perfect bag, just an armful of "it will do" bags.
ReplyDeleteBags! I have so many and I keep picking up new ones...it's my portable filing cabinet - a different bag for different types of papers, journal, etc. I love the variety of bags you have, Ramona!
ReplyDeleteI thought I was the only one who organized with bags! What fun. My perfect bag, but I haven't bought one lately is the LLBean bag, Ramona. It also can be monogrammed! I had one just like it from my favorite Indie bookstore, and it lasted a long while, but finally fell apart.
ReplyDelete