I Run for the Money

I just got back from a big company breakfast event aaaaaaaaaand (drumroll please)... guess who has an AED 2000 (USD $544) gift certificate to Mall of the Emirates burning a hole in her pocket for being my company's fastest marathon finisher? And by "fastest" I clearly mean "only," since you all know my time.

(I also - LOL - got a huge, elaborate, engraved glass trophy. At least we have plenty of space in our apartment...)

So anyhow, I've decided that since it is a windfall and I did suffer for it (both during the race and at this breakfast, where I had to endure lecherous male colleagues telling me [insert Indian accent] "with a body like that, you look like you could run 100Ks!"), I should use it to buy a bag rather than something responsible - like, oh, say several months' worth of groceries from Carrefour, which would be the most practical MoE option.

At any rate, I have long admired the LV Speedy 35 (okay I know it is hackneyed, but it's also a classic) but early responses (Jojo: "Hmmm I don't know, I Googled it and pics of Jessica Simpson came up with hers"; Mar: "I might lose respect for you if you get that. It's so ghetto! Every ghetto fab woman has one!") have led me to reconsider.

Plus, with Dubai Shopping Festival sales coming up, I might be able to stretch my 2K dirhams and afford a proper status bag - Bottega? Balenciaga? Bulgari?

Ah, the uncommon perks of being a marathoner in the Middle East...

(Ed. note: I love how running a marathon - something I did in an effort to return to my earnest, hard-working, look-I-still-have-my-priorities-straight roots - has, by virtue of its occurrence in Dubai, morphed into yet another episode of rampant, crazed, soulless consumerism. I'm telling you, this place could turn Mother Theresa into Rachel Zoe.)

But whatever. I'm still excited for my bag.