shedding excess baggage (m)

I used to live a very different lifestyle.

For twenty six years, I traveled extensively for my job--especially the last two years-- when my company was taken over by a much larger firm that required its people to travel so extensively that some joked its initials really meant "Pack & Go."

Once, I traveled from Boston to Minneapolis to Tokyo to China to Singapore to London to Boston in less than one week. As part of this trip,  we were interviewing low income consumers in rural China where the entire family slept in one small bed and our job was to figure out how to get them to trade up to the more expensive Olay body wash.  I mean, really.

During this trip, my luggage was destroyed.  So when I returned, I ordered a gorgeous new Tumi suitcase in the largest possible size. One that would accommodate my entire wardrobe because I never could decide what to wear on my trips since nothing looked good on me, so I brought everything I owned hoping--what--that I would be smaller by the time I arrived at my destination?

The suitcase cost a small fortune, but I thought I would get a lot of use out of it.  However, my plans changed as I retired a few months upon my return.

The king-sized Tumi suitcase sat in its original shipper in my garage for over two years.  This weekend, I attempted to return it to the store where I purchased it.  As expected, the styles have been updated.  The manager originally said (over the phone) that he would give me half price.  I schlepped the mother of a bag to the store and the manager now said he had talked to his boss and they could only give me 25% off the original price.  We haggled for a while and I got him up to just under 50%, but I still felt cheated.

It wasn't until I left the store, got in the car  and was driving home that I realized something:  the bag was monogrammed with my initials.  I guess I got a pretty good deal after all!