Every year, I get two Vera Bradley items for Christmas -- one from my mother-in-law, one from my grandmother-in-law.

These items are purchased at the great Vera Bradley discount show in Fort Wayne, where my in-laws live. Historically, said show has been held each spring at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. The last time I attended one of these shows was seven years ago. I was a couple of months away from getting married, and my intended's grandmother wanted to buy me some VB luggage items as a gift. She wanted me to come along and pick out a pattern.

It wasn't so bad that time. Grandma and I had no trouble staying together. We walked right in, and when we checked out it seemed like we were in and out in no time.

But now it's 2008, and things seem to have changed in the wonderful world of quilted handbags.

We went to Fort Wayne over the weekend to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday, and I was informed that for the first time, Vera was having a fall discount show. The last day was Sunday, and we girls were going.

Grandma is not normally an early-riser, but she was at my mother-in-law's house to meet us by 9 a.m. I was the last one ready, and Grandma and my mother-in-law were champing at the bit by the time I was ready to go.

The doors at the coliseum didn't open until 10 a.m. By the time we got there, the line was snaked all the way around the huge building and into the parking lot. It was like a rock concert.

We decided to wait in the car until the line started moving so Grandma wouldn't have to stand. It was about 10:05 a.m. when we got in line, and probably about 15 minutes before we actually made it inside.

The coliseum had been turned into a sprawling expanse of long tables, all piled high with quilted handbags, backpacks, tote bags wallets, eyeglass and cellphone cases and luggage. There were Vera Bradley beach towels, head scarves, t-shirts, pajama pants, tennis racquet covers and dog leashes (yes, I said dog leashes).

On the way in, buyers were presented with pink garbage bags. There were people there who were dragging two, three, four and more of these bags, all filled to capacity with VB items.

It was insane. I can't even tell you how many of those pink garbage bags I got hit with as people pushed and elbowed their way through the aisles.

I knew what I wanted, so once I found my two Christmas gifts I was finished (I got a purse in the "Pink Elephant" pattern and a laptop case in some green and pink floral pattern I can't remember the name of). I mean, they were great deals ... the purse was normally like 70-some dollars and we got it for $10, and the laptop case was an $82 bag and we got it for $20.

I guess from what my mother-in-law told me, a lot of the people who were at the sale were there to buy tons of stuff at deep discount and then sell it on eBay. The lady in front of us bought $2,500 worth of stuff. Seeing as she had several of the same bags, I would guess that was probably what she was doing.

But the sheer madness! These women were nuts. Completely nuts. And a lot of them were really rude. People my grandmother's age were shoving me out of the way to grab what they wanted.

From here on out, I think I'm just going to trust that my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law will get me Vera Bradley stuff I'll like for Christmas. There's no need for me to pick it out myself.

Once every seven years at that show is enough for me.