“Oh, I want that,” my friend Erin said. We were heading for a subway stop in Brooklyn, but the universe had deposited on the sidewalk, by a small heap of trash bags, an artfully weathered black trunk.We each grabbed a handle and hoisted the box back to her fourth-floor walk-up.
I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, but I’ll admit that I have some urban learning to do. In NYC, you take up space differently. Not like us elbows-out sit-wherever-you’d-like Westerners.
At a bar in the lower East Side that also sold cookies and vinyl, “you can’t stand here” was the tagline of our night: not by the cash register, not by the door. not near the rack of records and tChristmas lights you keep knocking out of the wall with your careless backside (this might make a good pop-up book. Yes, my golden ticket! Thanks, NYC). No one was unkind about asking me to move along. But in a city so full, you can want to disappear, to shrink to the width of a window so you don’t block anyone’s view.
Another city lesson: if something’s left on the sidewalk, it’s free, and it’s yours. The black trunk would complement the other found furniture and decor in Erin’s place, which had the air of a clean, calmly eclectic, well-lighted hostel. On the largest wall, you’d find a print of Marilyn Monroe, and old map of both Salt Lake City and our solar system (according to the poster, Pluto was still a planet, “arguably the strangest”).
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One morning when the yoga studio was jam packed, we bailed for a tasty cup at Oslo Coffee and a fruitful sashay through the Buffalo Exchange in Williamsburg, where I found a Banana Republic MadMen dress on sale (score!) and this bag:
It has an Andy Warhol label, and at one point it must have had a shoulder strap. I like that the bag has the durability of a messenger bag, but without that fussy overflap. And I’m pretty sure no one’s going to mistake this for a diaper bag (I’ve suffered some bag buyer’s remorse on this count). I doubt this treasure will solve all of my travel needs (and even I, avowed fan of Daring Clashing Patterns, may not be able to pull this off with a pink aloha roller bag). But I knew as soon as I saw this bag that my laptop would fit in here with room to spare. No more weird auxiliary tote bag for the coffee shop! And if I adopt this as my spring 2012 teaching bag, well, you can bet I won’t be afraid to take up some space at the front of the room.