WARNING: This carton was VIDEO TAPED

There it was, a big orange sticker on my package: "WARNING: This carton was VIDEO TAPED during packing to record contents!"

Have you ever seen such?

This was a Brahmin purse which I had purchased in July and began carrying in October. It was/is a beauty. They have gorgeous bags. But... it began to wear on the corners. Now, after a year, maybe. After a month? I don't think so.

They guarantee for a year if your bag is registered and I had done so. I filled out the paperwork, insured it and mailed it. Two weeks later it appears back on my doorstep in beautiful newer-than-new condition with the big orange sticker.

Who is not to be trusted? The packing people? Me?

Is this a sign of things to come?

I'm very glad to have my purse back. It was like coming home and I'd only had it a month.

But I do worry about orange stickers.

The joys? of a new purse

If part of the joy of the arrival of autumn is switching to a new purse, then part of the non-joy is getting used to it.

My summer purses are snap or zipper-closed affairs with easy access to my keys. The latest one had two end pockets with elastic at the top where I could stash a nail file and a lipstick, pens, shopping list, etc without ever opening the bag. I could dig while driving and still keep my eyes on the road.

My new winter purse, a glorious Brahmin concoction of dark brown, has one large pocket on the back but bulging items will not be welcome there. It closes with a flap and twisty lock, like a door, which means I have to open it to get to my secured keys. It's roomy, or I wouldn't have bought it, and it has space for the iPad, a device which changed my purse-buying habits forever. Or until it's smaller. But that's called an iPhone.

So I now have to balance the newest member of my wardrobe on a counter in order to open and not have it threaten to spill. This is a circumstance I did not see happening in the glory hour of finding it in the Brahmin store. I was so delighted to find a purse with ample room, glorious pedigree, single handle able to be carted over-shoulder, and ON SALE! that I didn't really figure all the what-ifs.

I will learn. Really, I can. Still.