Nordstrom Rack Attack, Times Two

It's one thing when you and your bestie discover Nordstrom Rack, the store where all past-season items from Nordie proper go to be purchased at a discount, and you go wackadoo buying the place out. It's another thing when after you've already spent a good amount of time and money at the Nordstrom Rack in Danvers, MA (formerly Salem but renamed after the famous witch trials; coincidence? I think not), you head over to Natick, MA, only to discover there is another Rack there too and you proceed to spend more time and more money at that second Rack. This is the story of how KH and I did just that. It's a day in the history of our friendship that I now fondly refer to as the "Rack Attack, Times Two" [insert movie trailer voice here].

Pay no attention to the fact that the previous paragraph has a sentence that is entirely too long. Instead, please picture this: a crisp, sunny, typical New England Spring day with cotton candy clouds dotting a bright blue sky. It's the kind of day in which some Bostonians might consider taking a jog or a stroll along the Charles, or walking their dog through the Commons. For the likes of me and KH, this is the best kind of a day to hop into the car and get ourselves to either the outlets or the local malls. Since we had already spent the previous, rainy day at the outlets, it was off to investigate this "Nordstrom Rack" K had seen advertised online as having a grand opening.

Well my friends, grand opening was apparently code for an additional 30-50% off. My haul included the following: two pairs of Havaianas because I think all the cool kids are wearing these in NYC (TBD), a pair of gold Birkenstocks, a pair of Jeffrey Campbell gladiator-style sandals, a navy blue cloth jacket, two shirts for the hubs and a pair of travel-size Tweezerman tweezers in lavendar. Excessive? Certainly. But nothing until you hear what I bought at the next Rack.

At the next Rack I spied and brought home with me what can only be referred to now as an "epic purchase." In the handbag section, hanging by itself with no other bags like it, let alone bags of the same designer, was the exact bag I had told myself I would purchase. It was kind of camouflaged because it's covered in zipper pockets and each of the zipper pulls had a thin strap of leather hanging off of it. With so many pockets, these leather straps ended up giving the bag a heavy-on-the-hippie feel.

But those measley leather straps were no hindrance for me. With K's help, I removed about 4 or 5 of them and looked in the mirror. It was perfect, it was pricey, but it had to come home with me.

Sure enough it made the cuts. And the reason I'm so obsessed with it now is that, upon returning back to SC, I did a brief Google search for Rebecca Minkoff and found similar styles on ShopBop and elsewhere for more than double what I paid for my little number. Is the style I now own past-season? Most certainly. Do I care? My dears, I'm pretty sure that by now, you know the answer to that one.

Oh yeah, we also went to see Chelsea Handler live, drank a bunch of vodka in solidarity with Chelsea and danced at a club until 2:00 am. To say we had fun is an understatement.