An umbrella is making me nervous

It was pouring rain today, as I went out to meet Shauna's teacher for parent/teacher conference day. Umbrellas are very hard to come by in our house. They are usually lost and/or broken before we have owned them a week.

When I was cleaning out the hockey equipment a few weeks ago, I came across an umbrella that has been in the hockey bin for at least a year. I had noticed it there before and never did anything about it, since I figured it was probably broken. So, as Luke was gathering up some goalie gear that he wanted for street hockey, I asked him to put the umbrella in my car because if I left it at the rink, they would throw it away anyway. Luke opened it and said it worked fine so I figured it would be nice to have an extra. The umbrella has been in my car ever since.

I sent Steven out to the van to get me the black umbrella today, a job which he wasn't too happy about. I don't blame him because it was really pouring, but I did give him an umbrella that was usable, but not in the greatest condition, so he didn't get wet. I really didn't want to take the half-broken umbrella to parent/teacher conference, even if it would keep me dry! So off I went to the conference, feeling really fancy with my new, in-perfect-condition umbrella, wondering the whole time just how long it would stay in that condition! As I got out of the car once I got back home, I noticed that it was a Coach umbrella. I'm not really big on name brands, but I knew that Coach sold really expensive purses and this did seem like a pretty nice umbrella.

I looked up Coach umbrellas on the internet. Lo and behold, my umbrella sells for $148. Are you kidding me????? Now I am a nervous wreck! I cannot own an expensive umbrella, it just isn't right. Alex says I should sell it because "You know you will break it anyway". Well, I'm not the one that breaks the umbrellas, but that is a good point, it will get broken. As soon as I discovered it was worth so much money, I rushed to the front porch to bring it in from where I had left it to dry. I can't have something worth that much just sitting on the porch, waiting to be blown into the street. I left the green, half-broken one out there!

Now I don't know what to do with this umbrella. Should I lock it in my closet? Should I sell it? Should I actually use it? What if I lose it? What if it disappears in the black hole that is somewhere in my house? What if it gets broken? What if the dog chews it up? What if a cat pees on it? See why I'm so nervous????? And to think that a couple of hours ago, I was thrilled just because I had a nice black umbrella to keep the rain off of me!