I am having such a strange month. Things that I've wanted for a very long time, I'm finding and at decent prices too. It's like having buying fantasies come true and it's a strange feeling.

First, I finally bought the bag that I've been wanting since January. I wanted a messenger style bag in leather, in any colour but black. I wanted a messenger bag to carry my baby laptop and a tablet when I go on my writing forays. The strap had to be long enough so I could wear it across my body, but I didn't want a boring breifcase bag. The bag also had to be stylish and not boring.

My first choice was a Coach large duffle sack bag, but I was unwilling to pay the $300 price. I started searching through tons of stores and websites for similar type bag, but I couldn't find anything that wasn't black and under $300. And believe me, I've looked everywhere.

Then last week, I went to the Coach store factory outlet in Petaluma and there was my large duffle sack in beautiful dark brown nubby leatherfor $199. I coudn't believe it. I had to buy it. And it's so damned perfect. It fulfills everything I've wanted in a bag and it was at price that was pretty darn decent, considering the bag is all leather.

Then today, I found this children's book that I've been searching the Net for since last July. I read the book as a child and I fell in love with the drawings and for whatever reason, I've been wanting to have the book. There are no pictures of the book anywhere and all I remember about the book is it had drawings of a japanese scarecrow named Joji. Well, today I struck gold and I found the book. It's called "Joji and the Dragon" by Betty Jean Lifton. The drawings of the scarecrow are so cute and I loved the story of the japanese scarecrow who was too nice and couldn't scare the crows away. In fact the crows would torture Joji and take the straw out of him and every night, at least this is what I remember, he had restuff himself with straw. Something about this scarecrow story has stayed with me all these years, although I'm not sure why.

I loved that scarecrow and I think a part of me totally relates to his story, which is an interesting thought. I felt so sorry for Joji the japanese scarecrow, but at the end of the book things always worked out for him. Maybe a part of me thinks that my life is like the poor scarecrow and that in the end, I hope it will all turn out and I'll have my happy ending. In the meantime, I have to put up with the crows, the people who torture me in my life and every night, I have to pick myself up and restuff myself with straw and love.

I'm not sure about the nice part though, since I don't think I'm all that nice, but maybe it's Joji's incompetence that I relate too. I mean, he was built to scare off the crows and he obviously can't do his job, so you could the scarecrow is incompetent, although the author of the book wrote that Joji was just too nice to do his job.

So I found the fantasy bag and bought it and I found my favorite child book and I bought it. Two buying fantasies fulfilled in two weeks. How cool is that?