The leather jacket

My first year of college, my mom bought me a leather jacket for Christmas. It was a nice jacket, real leather, but not terribly fancy or expensive. It wasn't any of the "I'm rebellious" or "I'm a Goth" or "I ride motorcycles" styles of jacket or, even worse, the "I'm the kind of girl who rides on the backs of motorcycles wearing little else" kind of jacket. It was just a nice classic black leather jacket that goes with everything.  I loved that thing - I wore it everywhere, for everything - except maybe skiing, and that was just cause leather doesn't like snow. ;-) I wore it to school. I wore it on dates with Robert. I was wearing it the night he proposed to me. (Along with 2 sweaters because it was 2 days before Christmas, outdoors, on a bridge at the UNM duck pond, on the very coldest night of the year! But that's another story.) I wore it throughout our marriage and even, unbuttoned, while I was pregnant with our kids.

 It looked kind of like this...

And then, one sad, sad day, ten years later, came the Great Mold Incident of 2010. You all know the story - 100% contamination, with everything having to be either washed or tossed. Well, you can guess the rest. That poor faithful beloved leather jacket, which I had completely worn out, was determined to be not worth saving. Or rather, not worth the amount of money it would cost to have it dry cleaned, because it would literally be cheaper to buy a new one. So it got tossed...and tears were shed...and life went on until...winter arrived again. And suddenly, I had no jacket. I had two nice heavy wool dress coats, which worked for the very coldest days, and some sweaters, but nothing in between.

My mom, being the sweet and generous lady she is, offered to buy me another leather jacket for Christmas. This sounded like a great plan...until we actually tried to find the jacket. Me, being the boring, traditional, and stubbornly-change-resistant person I am, decided I wanted the exact same jacket. Or as close a facsimile as possible. In vain we hunted - regular stores, department stores, thrift stores, online. Nothing. There are a million and twelve leather jackets in the world - and none of them looked right to me. I tried - I really did. I tried to give the other jackets a chance, to broaden my horizons - but I just didn't like them! They were too modern, too trendy, too "fashionable." I wanted my jacket. Soft black leather. Hip length. Button-up front. Pockets and princess seams. Plain and comfortable and safe. Is this too much to ask? Apparently.

This is just ridiculous looking. Too "fashionable" for me!

Winter passed and still no jacket. Spring arrived and the search was abandoned. Summer's heat made us forget the very existence of jackets and cold and snow. And then came September first...and along with the start of school came the first hint of cool wind and yellow leaves that reminds us: Fall is on it's way. Fall...season of apples and leaves and delicious pumpkin baked goods and...jackets. Oh yeah, jackets.

The search resumes. Day 1 is not going well so far. I'll keep you posted.