Finding Love with The Peace Sign Tote Bag

Jerry’s parties are always fantastic, to the point where all of us are constantly terrified of getting on Jer’s bad side and missing an invite. He does about four soirées every year and they are all equally amazing. He’s arranged his house well and he does have a faboo deck in the back, so the space is actually great for parties. Plus, he always invites his neighbours so there’s never any noise complaints!

Every one of Jerry’s parties has a theme, too – they’re just so much fun. Not getting an invite from Jerry is like receiving a death sentence through the mail. Once mine got delivered to the fellow next door and I spent the whole day drinking wine and wailing on the phone to my friends, concocting plans that were well past crazy to get back into Jerry’s good graces. When my neighbour brought the envelope over I had raccoon eyes and crazy hair, so any thought of a RomCom moment with my cute neighbour went out the window – but I didn’t care, because I’d been invited to Jerry’s party!

The last one I went to was themed for Singles. Now, normally when someone invites me to something because I’m a single girl, I get a little backed up about it, but Jerry can do no wrong, so of course I went. And perhaps spent more time and money on my hair and outfit than usual. And perhaps even shaved my legs. Hey, you never know.

At the party, we were instructed to take our gift bags first – did I mention Jerry always has a gift bag for his guests? The man’s a national treasure. The gift bags were in this fantastic clear tote bags. sturdy and roomy, I fell in love with mine immediately. Aside from being stocked with nifty little gifts that you could see at a glance, they each had a bold symbol on the front. Mine was a peace sign. Loved it.

Then, Jerry gave out his instructions: Someone else had the same tote bag as us, and it was our job to find the other individual. It was his way of mingling groups of single friends and seeing what happened. Suddenly the night was alive with adventure. Not only was I about to meet an eligible bachelor, I was also about to find out what Jerry really thought of me.

I wandered the party with my tote and a glass of wine, eyes jumping to everyone’s tote bags. And then I saw it: The peace sign! Attached to a tall man wearing a suit that had actually been tailored for him, drinking a whiskey. I ran up breathlessly and hoisted my peace sign tote in front of him. We locked eyes. This peaceful feeling swept through me, and I reminded myself to always, always be invited to Jerry’s parties.