Every once in a while when the weather is nice outside and I have a craving for tacos, (there is a Mexican food truck there with yummy tacos and tortas) I will go to the flea market with my parents.  My mom and dad have creative minds and love to build, refurbish, and create things, so a visit to the flea market allows them to treasure hunt, let their imagination go, and bounce ideas off each other (like the show Flea Market Flip). I have to admit I don’t get too involved when it comes to their projects, but do enjoy looking at the clothes racks and accessories. In the past I have been able to buy things, like a super cute Halloween fairy costume for $5.00, so I never know what I can find. A girl is ALWAYS hopeful.

This past Sunday as my mom looked for crystal (one of her favorite things to look for), I spotted laying down on a box this awesome purse. I could not believe what my eyes were seeing! It was instant attraction! I imagined Carrie Bradshaw in one of the episodes of The Carrie Diaries strolling around Manhattan with it. And then it hit me, “No! What has my mom done to me?”.  All the memories of the past summer came rolling down on me as I remembered the never ending art lectures from my mom. I realized the attraction was coming from an even deeper place. The purse reminded me of art pieces I had studied, it reminded me of Mondrian’s work. The 2013 summer of art appreciation had changed me forever!!!

As I held on to the purse I let my imagination go. In a matter of minutes I thought of the purse’s story and its previous owners. I thought of the era: “the 80’s? It looks like it but I’m not sure”. I imagined the outfits that I could create with it. I imagined a really pale brunette top model in an all white background and clothing admiring the purse. The purse had finally made it to the cover of Vogue. I thought of how awesome it would be to be able to own something that nobody else would have or maybe even feel confident enough to wear. Yep! That was not me, I was certainly confident enough to wear it everywhere. Why not? And then the doubt, really are you going to wear it? Or is it too bright?

I convinced myself it was probably more money than I could afford at the time for a purse that I really didn’t need it, but I decided to ask for the price anyway. I was now way too curious to know how much value would somebody else give to a purse that had clearly been around the world and owned by celebrities and eccentrics alike (at least in my imagination).  As I braced myself to hear the lady spell out the exorbitant price… she said: “3 dollars”. What??? Lady!!! You clearly don’t know what you are talking about! She probably was, but I didn’t want her to devalue my find, to devalue the connection that I now had with it. So I replied to her: “Ok, thank you”. I put the purse down and walked away.

I left her booth, confident that I had done the right thing. I didn’t needed the purse anyway. All of a sudden I heard my inner voice talking to me: “You don’t like it? The price is really good for something so different!”. It was not my inner voice anymore, it was my mom. She then proceeded to give me great advice: “If you like it but don’t need it offer her $2.00, if she accepts you leave with a great bargain, if she says no you were going to leave it anyway. Win-win.”  In a second she had shared a very important lesson, a lesson I will never forget, a lesson about the power of asking. You’ll never know what you can get if you don’t ask. The rest is history, the very nice lady agreed to give it to me for $2.00 and I came home with a purse to play with!

Do you have dreams like these when you go shopping or is it just the delusions of an utterly hormonal and dramatic teenager? 🙂