New, Big, Bouncy, Red Ball

Dilemma: I love my new bag. It's candy apple red, and shiny patent leather. Not mention it fits under the airplane seat handily, and holds a laptop. Practical and fashionable.
The problem is that as soon as I started commuting with my new shiny bag proudly upon my shoulder, I noticed that every fourth woman also had a red tote. And other women noticed mine. I got two compliments from strangers on the train. My friend saw the bag and then beat a path to get one of her own that night. (She politely texted me to ask if it was ok if she bought a very similar bag. I was an adult and said 'no problem.') The other bags are not exactly the same, but close: a darker red; a crocodile texture; gold detailing instead of silver; different levels of shininess.

I feel like a little kid who's arrived at the schoolyard with a new, big, bouncy, red ball. A ball that will make all the kids want to play four square with me for all of recess. But as I enter the school gates, I look around and see every classmate with their OWN bouncy red ball. Ack! No, that's my ball!! My new bouncy red ball! (Exit school yard with petulant lower lip thrust outward.)

Maybe this is one of those things like once I bought a certain make of car, I noticed all of its brothers on the road, when I had never paid any mind before.

Has everyone had a red bag?
Or maybe (more dire) I have unwittingly, subconsciously, just adopted the trend of the moment.

I hate that.

But I love my bag.

And to prove a point that I had precedent beyond lemming, fashion-craven behavior, I point to my two pairs of patent leather heels. One bought well over a year ago! (Ok, careful readers will point out that I may have been prescient in the patent leather trend, but neither of these shoes are red. I'm not Dorothy, people!)

I take this to mean that in this case I'm one of those runners at the start of a marathon. I might be mere footsteps ahead of the pack, but there's a hoard behind me.
I don't like feeling like I'm just a face in the anonymous, homogeneous, red-bag-carrying crowd.

But I love my bag, so darn it, I'm sticking with it.
I also love this new bag I got, on sale no less. V. fun and retro (it has the Pan Am logo embossed on it) and it's not red.