Yikes

[desperance]

That's the trouble, see. I can do self-control for so long, so very long - but then eventually I let myself off the leash, and...

Well. Thing is, I'm a jacket-and-bag queen. Other people do shoes; I know that, I understand it, I just don't share it. Give me a pair of black Rockport boots - size 10, since you ask - and I'm happy. Jackets and bags, though, whole different ball game.

Last week, I broke the zip on my regular backpack, the one I use almost daily. No matter: the opportunity loomed, I knew the book was coming up to ending, I knew that I could shop. So this morning, I went into town to do the thing. To buy a bag.

It will be no surprise to anyone who knows me, that I came home with a jacket. Oh, and a bag.

For those who care, the jacket is Italian leather (and green! it's a colour! it's not black!) with a satin lining, and the bag is a Kipling backpack. Black.

I'm very happy, and I hate myself.

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

green! it's a colour! it's not black!

Unless it's the sort of green of my green shirt that I still think of as my black shirt, of course...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mm-hmm. A previous winter jacket (now retired) was green in some lights, black in others. Confused the hell out of me. This one at least I'm sure of.

[jodi-davis.livejournal.com]

Really? Hate? For a jacket and a bag? C'mon, that's all about LOVE!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

It might be lust. Certainly it's desire overcoming wisdom, which could be either. I do try, damn it, I try so hard - and then I just blow it. Usually in shops.

[devonellington.livejournal.com]

Don't hate yourself, baby, you earned it.

And I bet the green looks wonderful on you.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

It brings out the hazel in my eyes, apparently. According to the cute Italian salesguy. Are we beginning to understand now, how this happened...?

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

When I hosted the International Conference of the Society of Children's Book Writers and illustratores here in Madrid, one of the extra-curricular activities I had programmed was an excursion to the area (coincidentally where I live, and also what is now the gay neighborhood) where many of the shoe and leather stores are. It was also during Rebajas, when everything goes on sale to make room for the next season's merchandise.

This happens twice a year: right after epiphany (Jan 7) until the end of February, and also July-August.

Lots of places will also make you a leather jacket or bag to specifications.

(For a friend in NY, who has a back problem and can't wear a backpack on one shoulder, we got him one of those one-strap across the back bags. In black, of course, not a color.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

[Thinks: mmm, Spanish leather... must go back to Madrid again...]

Going off at a tangent, did you ever get up to Semana Negra at Gijón?

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I've been twice.

Have they invited you?

You should go!

Better if you go as a mystery writer than an SF writer, though.

And isn't Bywater bringing out something of yours in their non-lesbian imprint? (I assume on Val McDermid's recommendation, since they do something of hers as well, I think.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Damn - I never saw this message when you posted it. Sorry...

I was at Semana Negra, ooh, eleven years ago (lordy, can it be so long?). Wonderful time, except I was ill and the site doctor saved my life. Twice. I'd love to go back, but I'd need a new crime novel. Soon now, soooon...

Bywater's publishing the first US edition of my novel 'Shelter', in their new 'Bloody Brits' imprint. Val is managing editor of the imprint, viz she gets to pick the list. The book'll be out in December, with a gorgeous cover on it (check it out here (/www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932859292/sr=1-18/qid=1155479209/ref=sr_1_18/104-1840711-0603901?ie=UTF8&s=books).

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

If you go to Gijon for the Semana Negra, Rebajas will have started by the time it is over (well, during, as well, since it is actually two weeks).

:-)

In general, rebajas star tin Madrid or BCN before they do in smaller cities.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Are you going to Semana Negra next year? We've been invited! It will also be our first trip to Spain - let's talk about that little street in Madrid, among others. . . .

[desperance.livejournal.com]

"Invited" meaning "we've said yes", I gather? You will have such a time...

It started, for me, in Madrid: boarding General Franco's personal train with fifty other writers for the long ride up to Gijon (wood panelling, and nice young men handing out beer...); but the best bit is getting off the train. Gijon station, big concourse, and it's crowded; the town band is there playing 'As Time Goes By', but the crowds aren't there to hear the band, they're there to see us the writers get off the train. Cries of "autor! autor!", demands for autographs, etc. After we listen to the band, we are urged outside - where a road-running steamtrain is waiting to convey us through the streets behind an elephant with an orang utan on its back.

After that, it gets weird.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

That's not a hate, man. That's the sort of thing that gets unsuspecting jacket and bag queen petted by passing bears. *g*

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Aww. That's the best of me, I am always so thoroughly unsuspecting...

[farwing.livejournal.com]

As someone with two green leather jackets (only one of them is Italian leather, and I got it by accident!) I can only congratulate you.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mine was an accident too, in that sense where you walk into a shop with no intentions, and come out ten minutes later having been thoroughly mugged by three eager & unscrupulous salespersons. I am such a mark, I just cain't say no...

[farwing.livejournal.com]

Well, I got my first teal green leather jacket while drunk-(they have regularly scheduled drunk shopping in one of the squares around here during the holiday season- free booze, and then stay open until midnight). I liked it when I was sober though, and it was vintage, and cheap. The second one was this past May, when we were in Italy to visit my baby brother (his semester abroad) and I tried it on as a joke because of the scary-wonderful acid-green color, and well, it had to come home with me! It horrifies my friends and terrifies my enemies! I imagine your leather jacket is a more sedate green than either of mine.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid that sedate very probably is the word - it's a tad darker than British Racing Green, but very much that end of the spectrum.

I am deeply, deeply attracted by the notion of drunk shopping. Such a good idea. Where is it you live again...?

[farwing.livejournal.com]

I live near Cambridge, MA. Drunk shopping is quite enjoyable, drunk holiday shopping even more so: "Ah, yes, what my friend in California really needs is birthday-cake scented hand cream!" True story.

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

Me, I'm a 'nice shirt' person myself. I never used to be (due to lack of budget rather than anything else) but now I can afford to buy nice shirts I tend to buy a lot of them.

It goes in phases though: I haven't bought a new shirt for months.:-)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Ah, shirts, now - see, I'm with shirts like I am with boots; I'll wear anything so long as it's black cotton. I do like the nice ones, but I don't need many (given that they all look the same). Jackets and bags, though, they're like pans in the kitchen: every one's unique. I have a lot of pans, too... [pauses, to go down to kitchen and count pans - good grief. I have thirty-one, and that's not including casseroles and other oven-dishes, only saucepans, frying pans and woks. And every single one of them has its purpose...]

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I hate you, too - I want that jacket!!!

Jackets . . . mmm, can't get enough of them.

When I was GoH at Arisia in Boston (and got to do whatever I wanted), I staged a Revival Meeting/Tent Show/Makeover Session called "Your leather jacket will find you..." Many fans think they're still fighting the style wars they were happy to lose in high school. I tried to show them the Truth Path to empowering dressup. (For some, it's cowboy boots.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

S'mine, I tell you, miiiiine...

Jackets. Cons. I was at World FantasyCon in Montreal, and the streets were busy with Brit con-goers buying jackets, 'cos leatherstuff was just so (comparatively) cheap. Chaz, Chaz, they said, come'n'play. So I went to play - and became the only Brit at the con to buy a really, really expensive jacket. I got ambushed, twice: first by the thing itself (lambs' leather, with lambs' fleece around the collar - soft as a very soft thing, it's gorgeous) and then by the sales guy, who stood between me and the door and said "What can I do, to help you leave with the jacket?" Honestly, I am such a mark... We talked, and he paid the tax, and I still spent way more than I oughta. But I still wear the jacket for winter dress-up events. And now I have two. I need a verb, from 'smug'; smug is not what I am, it's what I'm doing...