The Best Thing Ever: #100

The other day, it was payday, and I stopped by Nordstrom Rack.  After a week of scrimping and saving, I wanted to splurge a little bit.

I looked through a few dresses and sweaters, picked up a new bag, and thought maybe it’d be fun to get a new wallet to go with it.

That’s when I found this:

And my heart stopped.

It was perfect.  It was brilliant.  The little Degas-inspired ballerinas  reminded me of my years and years as a ballet dancer.  The leather gave it a sophisticated edge, and the way the leather was shaped and puckered gave it kind of that unique, artsy feel.

Then I looked at the price tag.  I died a little bit.  It was $80.

But it was too late.  The little ballerina clutch had already taken up residence inside me.  It was a part of who I was.

I pretended to deliberate with myself for another minute or two, then took a deep breath and walked up to the cash register.  The sweet cashier took the ballerina clutch delicately out of my hands.

“This is beautiful,” she said.  “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I know!” I squealed.

She rang it up.  “And today is your lucky day,” she said, “because this is one cent.”

I stared at her for a few seconds.  “Um…what?”

“Yeah,” she said, and shrugged.  “Sometimes they put them in the system wrong, and there’s nothing I can do about it.  This costs one penny.” 

“Okay,” I said, after a moment of stunned silence.  “I’ll take it!”

Yes, this clutch is just a material object.  I don’t normally rely so much on material objects for my self-worth and completion of myself as a human being, but this clutch is just something.

I’ll love it forever.

And it cost me one cent.

It was the best thing ever.  The end.