It's very difficult to bring four kids to the library. But we can at least attempt a quick trip. For emergencies.

The oldest wanted books on his bio selection, Da Vinci. The online card catalogue wasn't working fast enough for us, so I took Kenny to the biography section in the (juvenile) stacks and we found several books. Sounds simple, but we were interrupted many times by the other three kids.

Besides the biography books, I figured it was high time that Ella got her own library card. She's four after all. A little overdue, even (ha-ha). She was thrilled with it, especially the color. After she got it, we went back into the children's section and I helped her pick out "girl books." The boys had picked out all war, army, navy, battleship type books.

The boys all have wallets to keep their library card in. Ella wanted a wallet, too. Since the library card is purple, she wanted a purple wallet. I took her to the Jackson Outlets this afternoon to look at wallets. Out of habit, I parked near Wilson Leather, also near Fossil, thinking we could find something there. But at the last second, my eye caught the Coach store. I thought Coach would be my best bet for finding a non-brown wallet, i.e., purple.

I've never been in the Coach store at the Jackson Outlets. In fact, I've only entered a Coach store once, probably three or four years ago, at the Freehold Mall with a friend who was returning something. I was quite unprepared. There was loud music and lots of women. There was a special 30% off event, in anticipation of a Presidents' Day Weekend sale. It was clearly not an outlet store: everything appeared to be full price. I knew that I couldn't get her a $79 wallet.

But we looked around. She wanted to buy the first thing she saw. I let her carry it but I told her that we would keep looking. It's a terribly small store, a feature of the Outlets that I appreciate. There's no getting lost. So, why not look through the entire store?

Well, but we didn't because it was too busy. In clearance, I found a wallet for $39, plus the 30% off. The snap closure billfold was what I was looking for in terms of features, size, price and color (plum). The woman who rang us up made a big deal about the purchase, even saying to Ella,

"You're a very lucky girl to be getting a Coach wallet."

My husband accuses me of strong brand loyalty but I haven't any idea what distinguishes a Coach from any other manufacturer of handbags. It really seems rather silly. Anyway, I didn't appreciate the cashier's attempt to foster enthusiasm for shopping in Ella.