In the Bag!

Welcome to NeighborGoodies! First, a little piece of business:

It has come to my attention that a certain corporation has apparently banned their employees from reading NeighborGoodies. And, while I'm irritated that this company has taken this action, I will say that I'm also kind of excited that NeighborGoodies got enough attention to be banned anywhere.

And so, a big shout-out to all of you people who suddenly can't read the blog over at the Cintas Corporation who, I'm told, are secretly in the process of changing their slogan to be: Cintas: Because Uniforms Mean No Fun!™

And to think, I was going to get some NeighborGoodies uniforms made there. Oh well...

For those of you who have been banned--and even for those of you who are just lazy--you'll notice a new box to the right, where you can subscribe to have NeighborGoodies emailed to you whenever there's a new post! So, you know--feel free to sign up!

Moving on: Today, we have a collection of bags that give us a window into a NeighborGooder's troubled soul:

These six very different bags all seem to represent a woman in search for herself. We can follow her journey through life via these sacks of memories.

Back in Grade School, she loved her cartoons--specifically her PowerPuff Girls:

And what's not to love? Three adorable, scrappy young girls out secretly fighting crime....


....but our lonely NeighborGooder identified with Bubbles, Blossom and Buttercup in a way that her peers just couldn't understand. While they were all out playing Duck, Duck, Goose, our heroine was busy referring to herself as Bunny, the fourth Powerpuff. Her classmates mocked her for drawing Powerpuff-related doodles in her notebooks as she fell behind in her classes--and withdrew from the world via the Cartoon Network.

In High School, she found other outcasts just like her. Girls with names like Raven, Banshee & October who never quite fit in either. To better blend with her new group of friends, Bunny dyed her hair black and began going by the name of Moon. To express their individuality, these ghoulish gals began shopping at stores like Hot Topic, where they'd purchase unique bags that matched their outrageous personalities:

These hardcore, punk rock purses were likely filled with eyeliner and cigarettes, and were used to show everyone that Moon and her gothy friends weren't part of The Crowd, even if they were forced to wear a stupid Cintas Brand™ school uniform like everyone else. Moon was more than a girl in a plaid skirt--she stood on her own, dammit, and didn't need to be popular. She had friends now. Friends who understood that it rules to cut yourself while listening to Veruca Salt!

Once High School ended and her goth friends shed the eyeliner and the razor blades, Moon once again found herself at a loss. Needing income, she took a job answering phones at a hip dotcom, and began showing up to work carrying these stylish messenger bags:


These bags said, "Sure, I'm going to work--but I'm not boring! At least I don't work someplace that forces us to wear Cintas Brand Uniforms™!" Once the dotcom bubble burst, Bunnette Mooney (as she'd come to be known) ran off with the young, hot and now-broke CEO of her company to helped him launch a new career in office supplies. These days, she carries a more serious business bag for her laptop and papers...

...although something tells me she's probably still cutting herself on occasion.