Ch-ch-ch-changes

Sigh. Have you ever wished and wished for something new and shiny to replace something old and worn, but when you finally got your wish you almost couldn't bear to part with the tattered item it is replacing? That is exactly how I feel about the present that Rocket Boy got me.

This is my old wallet. I've carried it since I lost my Hello Kitty wallet during my sophomore year of high school. That was many years ago. I bought it at the Contempo in the now demolished mall in Boulder, back when edgy, punk rock girls shopped at Contempo. It served me well all those years.

Once in college it was stolen out of my purse right behind my back. Oh, how I mourned the loss of it then. Whoever took it used my credit card, took the cold medicine and cash out of it and then dropped the empty wallet into one of those blue post boxes. When the post office sent me a notice weeks later I cried with happiness. I had to pay the post office $8.15 to get it back, but I didn't care. It was my perfect wallet. Satiny soft on the outside, (that's all worn off now. It's as slick as deer guts on a glass doorknob, as my dad would say) roomy inside with lots of room for discount cards (I'm a sucker for a coupon) but still cute and ever so slightly punk rock.

Cash never really fit into it all that well, so I developed a way of folding my bills that drove everyone crazy. I always had to unfold the cash before I paid for something and then carefully fold the change back into my wallet. If I wasn't ever so careful, the bills would catch in the zipper and it'd get stuck. I ripped the corners off of more bills than I care to remember. Sometimes I'll get a ripped bill now and wonder if somehow it has been in my wallet before.

I started tucking a twenty into the middle change pocket after one horrible trip to the gas station. It was before I had a credit card and one morning before work I filled up my tank with gas, grabbed my wallet, and noticed there was NOTHING inside. "No big deal," I thought, "I'll just use a check." Except I didn't have any checks either. I panicked. I stood there next to my car crying. What was I going to do? Nothing like this had ever happened to me! Thank the Maker, a very nice stranger saw my distress and paid for my gas for me. I don't think I even thanked him properly. Sir, if you are out there, you made a huge impact on the seventeen year old me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

A few years ago the front pocket started to rip after I pulled my ID out of it a little forcefully. I was in a hurry to a doctors appointment and got pulled over for doing 40 in a school zone, only I wasn't actually in the school zone while I was speeding. I know I wasn't because I worked at the school in question, and the school zone didn't start for another 2 blocks, and it was 2:20 on a Saturday, so (I thought) it didn't matter anyway. Got a double fine for that one, but I haven't gotten a speeding ticket since. The anger I felt at getting the ticket wasn't worth the few minutes I would have saved if I hadn't been pulled over.

Just now when I cleaned it out I found Rocket Boy's fortune from one of our first dates. Actually, it wasn't a date. We were just hanging out at his place before we "officially" started dating and decided to get something to eat. He took me to a little Chinese buffet where we pigged out on fried rice, sesame chicken, and veggies. We got our fortune cookies at the counter when we paid and opened them in the car. I knew as soon as I saw his fortune that things were going to work out for us. I tucked the little promise into my wallet and promptly forgot all about it. I am tucking it into the change pocket on my new wallet to serve as a reminder of all the wonderful, magical things in this life.

Here is the shiny new one. I sent Rocket Boy to the Queen Bee site and told him which color combos and styles I liked and he picked this one out for me. Isn't it sweet? Look at the tag- the bee just makes me melt.

Oh, I will miss my old wallet. But I'm sure my new wallet will carry just as many memories for me. And look at how nicely it goes with my new purse from ten thousand villages!