Stuff in my bag....

I have a little weekend ritual where I dump out my work bag before Monday morning and get rid of all the junk. Then I repack it, junk free and voila! It's like a whole new bag. Today I thought I'd share. It's kind of like "stuff in my drawer" but a little more enlightening, since I carry all this crap around every single day.

Here's the list of stuff that lived in my bag all week:

• Ticket to La Traviata (from Monday)


• (almost empty) package of Orbit raspberry mint gum and a great number of wrappers.


• 5 band-aids of varying shapes and sizes


• cell phone (pink razr! pretty!)


• Mini eye glass repair kit (in case I have a screw loose. Ahahahaha)


• plastic spoon (yes, it's a little odd, but in my own defense, we went for like 2 weeks in the office where we didn't have any spoons. Have you ever tried to eat oatmeal with a fork? Very unsatisfactory. So this is my little emergency spoon.)


• Business card case (I saw this advertised in a magazine and had to get it. I am very suggestible.)


• Eye drops


• 3 tubes of Soft Lips gloss (one of them tinted)


• iPod (otherwise known as a Commuter's Best Friend. Red. Pretty!)


• Dr. Feelgood make-up mattifier


• Advil


• 2 Argo tea receipts


• Patti LuPone Live cd (it was cold this week and I didn't want to leave it in the car to freeze)


• Monthly Metra pass (New 10% fare increase goes into effect today! Arrrgh! Bastards! Sometimes this working in the city thing really really sucks.)


• Work ID badge ("All Access" Woohoo!)


• 3 pens (this is kind of like a record for me. Usually I carry about 10 pens on me. I live in fear of one of them not working...Strange because this never ever has happened to me. It's good to be prepared, I guess.)


• Keys (work and car and house)


• Change purse (for train parking lot money. $1.50! To park! Crooks!)


• Parking receipts (it takes every ounce of my early morning pre-coffee brain power to be able to remember my parking spot number as I go from the car to the station. Sometimes this can be a long walk. It is not unusual to see me walking to the station chanting "175! One seven five..." or whatever the number is. It changes every day depending on when I get there. I keep the receipts in case one day I totally screw it up).


• Ear plugs (for noisy train station. They kind of suck so I don't wear them a lot)


• Nasal spray (for raging allergies)


• Extra socks


• Nail file


• Mini-Sharpie (I like to carry sharpies about my person at all times, because you never know, do you.)


• make-up bag (where about 99% of this stuff resides most of the time)


• Wallet
  

So there you have it. Usually I also bring an extra pair of shoes in this bag, and I stow my hat and gloves in there too when I am not wearing them (due to the fact that I tend to lose winter apparel at an alarming rate. This winter I've been pretty good and only lost a scarf.) I also sometimes put in a book or magazine for reading time, or a snack if I'm going to be out and about and have to miss breakfast. I had a cookie in there for a while, from a meeting last week that I forgot about, and so now there are crumbs in there too. There's also usually a generous helping of white cat hair, since the kitty likes to sleep on (and occasionally chew on) my bag (I think he likes the leather).