Hello Kitty Replacement

About four years ago, my passenger’s window of my ’87 Volvo was smashed while parked on the street overnight in Venice.

It was my own fault, really. I had done the ole cover up stuff with a sweater on the seat trick, but I wasn’t fooling anyone. An empty Hello Kitty purse, my navy hat, my bag with my student anthologies, and my Thomas Guide were taken. I felt so violated.

I had almost driven off with my coffee cup on the roof of my car, I was so in shock. Someone had stopped me to tell me it was on the roof.

I told my students about the robbery when I arrived at school. One of my students said to me, “At least you have a hat to steal.” I pondered this.

What upset me the most, were the student anthologies. I couldn’t replace this one drawing that was an original in my copy. The student had drawn a skeleton, an ode, little pieces of class which she would take away.

So when I was on my way to dinner for our last blog class, I passed by a Sanrio store. I couldn’t not go in, as I was fifteen minutes early and had time to spare.

There was a pink cheetah furry purse. It’s almost Christmas! I haven’t had a new purse for over a year! I’m still not over the loss of the Hello Kitty theft! It had a matching wallet. Well now, you can’t get the purse without the matching wallet. Then, I had to ask, “Does it have a matching pen?” Another five dollars. The thirty dollar purse turned into a sixty dollar purse.

It’s amazing to me how material I can be. But these material things somehow have more meaning than just their material value. I had just had a fight with my mother over money—Christmas gifts between my angry lesbian sister and I. When I was young, my mother and I would go to the mall. I would lose time looking at the small selection of Hello Kitty paraphernalia, a world unto itself. When I arrived home, there was a message on my machine from my mother saying how much she loved me.

Now this new Hello Kitty purse has its own story, found on the day I was leaving my blog classmates, purchased by a professional pursuing her Master’s Degree.