in praise of new luggage

I am so excited. I just got new luggage! Now I am sure you all are saying "what in the heck is so exciting about luggage"!

Well, it's not just new luggage, it is a matched set of Tiganello luggage with red leather trim. It is well made and it is beautiful. A mercedes of luggage. Once again, you are probably saying big deal. But to me, having a good, matched set of luggage is tantamount to saying to myself that I have arrived! It is a symbol to me, like a mercedes or a huge honking diamond. It says, look at me, I have it together and I am cool. Ok, maybe I am not a tycoon, and certainly not together, but while I am pulling that luggage I can pretend. I can be an heiress jetting away for a vacation, I can be a CEO going to an important meeting. I can be whomever I want with that luggage in tow.

I remember when I was a teenager, being at the airport and seeing a woman with a matched set of really great luggage and thinking that she must be really successful. I mean, everyone else had mis-matched, black, blah luggage and here was this woman looking very smart with her great luggage. Right then I said that if I ever traveled I would get a nice set. Well, I used to travel for work and I bought a nice set of luggage. It was brown/black zebra tapestry and it was as cool as I could do on what I made at the time. Little did I know that luggage would see me thru 3 trips to Europe, 3 cruises and too many road trips to count. It finally bit the big one after a cruise this year. Could I get it fixed, probably, but it has earned the right to rest.

So I decided before I go to Greece this year it was time to invest in a really good set that will probably outlast me. Enter the beautiful new luggage.

I feel kind of bad setting it next to the old set. I mean, that luggage has been a work horse, and having been an ex replaced by an 18 year younger new wife, I know how that luggage must feel!
But I can't help being excited. I keep opening it up and looking at the integrated shoe pockets, the little packs that snap into the lining to keep them from moving around, I pull out the handles that operate so smoothly. I can't wait to pack my first items in it and go to the airport. Now I get to be that woman that others look at, the woman that makes a teenage girl look and hope that someday she can be successful and have a matched set of luggage!