the difference between my friend and I

My friend talks to me about her $300 D&G sun glasses, her $400 Gucci purse, and her $300 Prada shoes. She is addicted to shopping, and she is not a rich girl by any means, she is buried in debt. She has the audacity to tell me that she buys stuff on sale; she actually thinks that a pair of glasses formerly priced at $400, are a great catch at $200.

I told her that I could never be able to pay that much money for a pair a glasses or a purse, I really do not see the need when I can buy similar items at much lower prices. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t do my shopping at Salvation Army. I am a girl too, I buy lots of purses and shoes, a lot more than I probably need. I also enjoy a certain quality in the items that I buy, but there comes a point when the difference between my Nine West purse and her Gucci one is something that in Albanian we call: pordhe.

I object to such foolish luxuries. No. 1: I cannot afford them! No. 2: even if I could afford them I would refuse to buy them! I would rather take a vacation instead of a pair of glasses and a purse. She says that that’s the difference between us; she gets a lot more pleasure from her shoes and purses than a vacation. She might have a valid point, but I still do not understand.

I also don’t think it’s acceptable for her to stroll around in her $300 shoes (that’s only one pair, think about all the other ones in the closet) when there are people in the world who go bare foot every day…not to speak about starvation and other similar tragedies. I am not talking about being stingy to the point where you completely deprive yourself of the pleasures of shopping; all I am trying to say is that it is possible to get the same pleasure from a brand like Nine West and the like as opposed to Prada, Gucci or Christian Dior. I guess it all comes down to priorities, ands mine are certainly not the same as hers.