"Hi! I'm Carolyn of Planet Middle Class! From where do you hail?"

(I retell this story at Barbara's request that I put it in writing.)

"Guess how much I got this for!"

Elena (the new intern that arrived the evening before) showed off the small black messenger bag on her shoulder as we waited in the grocery checkout. "It's real Prada." Sure enough, the small silver insignia sewed on the flap of the bag reflected at me as if determined to set itself apart, to not be lumped together with its essentially identical Walmart or Old Navy-produced counterparts. Elena gave me a hint. "I got it at a consignment shop!" I mentally formulated my guess:

Ok...Prada. I can do this. Just have to make sure I don't guess too low. I always ruin the storyteller's joy that way. Let's see...the most expensive brands I've ever come in contact with are Coach and Burberry. Though I've never actually owned anything by either of them, I'm fairly certain a small purse could cost around $150...and I bet Prada stuff runs at least twice that...so if she got it at a consignment shop maybe she spent...

"Fifty dollars?"

Elena pouted. Damn it. Too low. "Well, at (insert name of some store I've never heard of) it runs at five-ninety-five, but at the shop I got it ritzy women sell their designer stuff for cheap and they get a percentage so I go there somtimes and..."

I was confused and had to cut in. "Five-ninety-five? Five hundred and ninety-five dollars!?"

She in return looked confused. "Well yeah, it's Prada! You know, like Gucci?" Apparently I did not know. I had thought maybe I had, but I was mistaken. "Anyway, it's originally five-ninety-five, but at the consignment shop I got it for just one-seventy-five!!"

One hundred and seventy-five dollars for what was essentially an Old Navy bag with a shiny badge.

"Wow, that is a deal then..." I was dumbfounded. For the first time in quite a while I realized I had just entered a world in which I had absolutely no bearings whatsoever. As the cashier scanned my groceries, I took my wallet from my purse and remembered how I had agonized over whether to buy it or not. I wasn't sure I could justify spending $40 on a bag.