Say hello to sugar and spice

I am stumped. My bag closet is staring me in the face — taunting and challenging me. I think it already knows that in a few minutes, I will be in a fashion fix.

I am all dressed up, Christian has just done my makeup, Josie my hair, and lovely falsies are perched perfectly on the outer corners of my lash line — just six flirty strands for each eye. That’s all I wanted, needed for tonight. It looks kikay. My dress is beautiful, my shoes sky-high but comfortable (how great is that?). I have on lovely blue cameo earrings made by Candy of Jul B. Dizon and on one finger, just the “I love you ring” Richard gave me a few days after he married me, that I always wear alongside my wedding ring. All I really need now is a bag and I’m good to go. I am searching for something that, number one, will go perfectly with my outfit and, number two, can fit all that I need to bring for the night, which isn’t much, really; just a money clip, a credit card, blotting paper, a packet of tissue paper, lip gloss, my mobile phone, mints.

But like my bag closet already knows, it has nothing for me tonight. The minaudiere, I know, would be perfect; but it’s not big enough for all that I just mentioned. Do you realize just how tiny these beautiful cases are? But they are so chic and beautiful that I just pretend they are not so tiny at all. In the same way that I watched the movie Titanic twice in a row in the futile hope that the ship would not sink the second time around, I dropped in and removed the seven items I needed to fit in the little beige case twice over, adjusting and repositioning the items here and there. Maybe, just maybe (and even just for the night!) the bag will miraculously expand after my first try?

Of course we all know how this part of the story ends. In the same way that the Titanic still sinks no matter how many times I watch it, my beautiful but tiny bag did not, and will not, expand.

I know there are more serious things to fret about, the world being what it is and the economy being where it is now, but just for this moment I need a bag. One that will not break my outfit, Christian’s beautiful makeup, Josie’s precisely disheveled hairdo. The wrong bag will do all that plus more. Plus I am already running late. To simplify my life I will just have to let go of either the mobile phone or the mints. The phone will win, of course, and I know I will just open the pretty tin can and transfer a dozen mints into a tiny Ziploc plastic bag. That will fit into my bag.

It may not be serendipitous, but the following night when I had another function to attend, a package landed on my desk. It was another Nokia mobile phone, in bubblegum pink, just a tad thicker than two graham crackers smack against each other minus any filling, and although I fiercely love the Nokia N82 I have that was given to me by Kris Aquino as a no-occasion present earlier this year, I knew at first sight that this new cellphone would easily fit along with the six other things in my tiny beautiful minaudieres! A breakthrough, finally! Where were you last night when I needed you, I wanted to ask the phone.

Just for this dinner where I need to use another tiny but beautiful bag, I tell myself I will try it. I transfer my SIM card to the new, sleek Nokia 7210 Supernova cell phone and journey into the night.

What’s not to love?

As I tinker with it in the car I discover I can listen to the FM radio! It has all these nice radio stations; that is refreshing because I am way too attached to my music player. In fact, I honestly do not even remember the last time I listened to the radio. The minute I get into the car I just ask the driver to play my favorite CDs, the Leona Lewis album being my current favorite. I love her angst-ridden, sexy voice, especially now that the rainy days are here. As opposed to listening to her album or the playlists in my music player, it was actually kind of nice to not know what was going to play next. That is the unmatched magic of the good old radio, manned by good old DJs. The first song that I heard sounded like something Babyface would sing although I was not sure if it was him, followed by I’ll Be Over You and then Rihanna’s Umbrella (the real one, not the funny Tagalog version). Not bad at all. I switched stations after I heard I Will Take You Forever; that song reminded me so much of the disco-ral in the province that our yayas loved to attend.

It brought back nice memories of all our yayas and helpers who were/still are, such characters. (Disco-ral, for those who do not know, literally means disco na naka koral, koral in the Bisaya dialect means bakod so, in effect, it is an open space na nakabakod with some rope or a line of chairs just for the night where the young and not so young can just disco and dance the night away).

Going back to the Supernova 7120, I also found some pre-installed cute ring tones, animated wallpapers, screensavers and color schemes. Even in traffic I was entertained by the games (also pre-installed) — Snake 3D, Sudoku (I think it can actually be something I can get hooked on if I had the time), something called Bounce II and Seasweeper.

I checked the box again when I got home — this model, as I was correct in saying, is called the Nokia 7210 Supernova. It’s nice, really nice. Even if it only has a two-megapixel camera, this does not bother me because I really do not use my cellphone to take pictures very much. For that, I rely on either my Canon Ixus or Powershot.

All that said, I really still am a creature of habit and until my N82 gives up on me I will keep on using it. Having two lines is not an option for me either because I want to keep things, and everything techie, simple and easy. So where does this phone go from here? To be shared with my little pink daughter who, incidentally, just turned eight. She squealed with delight when I told her she could share my Supernova with me because her old unit has all but given up on her — it already fell countless times, got dipped in yoghurt and milk a few times; it even got misplaced twice, confiscated by her teacher in school once.

This bubblegum-colored Supernova is another cellphone that will link us together as we share it. I will use it when I need to carry my pretty little evening bags.

Guess what else I found when I removed the SIM card at the end of the night to slip back into my N82? Pretty little stars on those metal thingies at the back!

I know for sure those stars have nothing to do with how it functions but I like how little touches like that are incorporated into the design almost like an afterthought — something that pops up from nowhere, and for no reason at all. It is like wearing fine underwear even when you are just lounging at home, or the floral lining in the Paul Smith jacket I saw hanging on my husband’s closet the other day. No one has to know it’s there; it is nice to just know it is.