Bagging it

I'm a bit of a bag lady. Not only do I schlep around knitting projects in various and sundry canvas bags, I'm usually packing a bag or two for purchases, library books etc.

I'd love to be able to claim that it is all about my environmental awareness but the fact of the matter is that I can't really resist a cute or even not so cute bag and that makes me a bit of a bag hag.

Based on my adventures in mucking out after my mum, this whole bag hag thing would appear to have a hereditary component. Not only do I not mind but I also have a certain amount of sadness about some of mum's bags that didn't come home with me. The Ohio story telling bag with the "oops that's another story" caption and the upside down state is one I'd love to have but that too is another story.

Being a bag hag has its rewards. For some time now the Ralph's grocery chain has given shoppers a 5 cent credit for each shopper supplied bag. More recently, Trader Joe's has been doing a raffle for people who supply their own bags.

I don't always fill out a raffle ticket even when asked and when I do fill one out (usually at either Hillcrest or Carmel Mountain locations) I do not expect to win. I've probably filled out more slips at the latter than the former and would have, in the unlikely event of a win, have expected it to come from entries there.

So imagine my surprise to answer the phone on work at home day to discover that I was a bi-monthly raffle ticket winner at my local Hillcrest homo-hood Trader Joe's..

Naturally, I had a pimple that ate Pittsburgh just under my eyebrow when I got the news. Since I knew that a photo was part of the price of winning, suffice to say that prize pick up took a back seat to pimple disappearance.