Sometimes I wonder what goes on in my head. I don't usually stop to think about this, but it's at those odd, random moments when I can step back and look at myself from the viewpoint of an outsider (meaning someone else who's not in my head).
What kind of person do you see here?
This is the junk I just pulled out of my older purse as I make that seasonal change to a new purse. It makes me wonder how an outsider would describe me just by viewing the baggage I carry around with me every day.
The first thing that really jumps out at me is Did I really have 12 (12?!) lip products in that little purse? I hardly ever put it on unless my lips feel dry or I'm going to church. There were two glosses, one medicated lip balm, two shaded lip balms, and seven lipsticks. Do you realize how much room all that lip junk takes up in a purse? And what really cracks me up is that this past Sunday I was looking for a particular shade I knew I owned and couldn't find it anywhere in my make up drawer. I have spent three or four days this week wondering where it was. Duh. Who is this woman who keeps taking lipsticks out of my drawer and putting them into my purse?
I also wonder why I have five packets of breath freshener strips (one is hiding next to the Trident breath freshening gum). They're usually only used at church, too, and not always by me!
The three pens are a necessity...I have to have them. One of the worst things for me is to have to ask someone if I may borrow a pen. Don't like touching other people's dirty pens.
That brings me to the two bottles of hand sanitizer. Yep, we go through lots of that stuff.
And we have to have hand lotion, though I usually just leave that in the car glove box. Don't need to carry that around. The Visine A needs to stay in the purse, though, especially since we're already into pollen season. My eyes give me fits.
I can't really explain all the candy. I love, love, love peppermint Lifesavers and keep a bag of them in the car. Sometimes when we're heading into a store, I'll grab a handful and toss them into my purse. These are the ones that fell to the bottom and didn't get found again. They remind me of the sticks of gum my mom used to have in the bottom of her purse when we were little. Mom used to smoke and I can clearly remember her sharing sticks of gum with us and there'd always be little tiny bits of tobacco stuck to the gum inside the foil. Didn't mind it at all. It's always kind of funny to think about it.
The three Dove chocolates came from a little old lady at church whom I don't even know. She called Jay over a few weeks ago and dropped three candies into his hand and told him to give them to the kids. It's dark chocolate and the kids don't like it. I don't really know if I want to give the kids candies from little old ladies at church, anyway. Not that I don't trust little old ladies, but they always make me think of old Aunt Bethany on that show National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Remember the one who wrapped her cat in a box and put cat food in the lime Jello mold? That was the first thing I thought of when Jay handed the candies to me and told me where they came from.
The few Smarties left in the roll were Jacob's. He's always sharing, and after eating 3/4 of the roll, he handed me the leftovers and said "Here Mom, you can have the rest of my Smarties since you like them." I think that was in early January.
I bought the Trident last summer and there are two pieces of gum in there. I threw them away. I don't chew gum very often. It was getting rather rubbery, anyway.
The empty lollipop stick was Katie Mei's. She got a sucker this past Thursday when she got her vaccinations. She ate the sucker in the commissary and then didn't want to carry the stick around. I told her to hold it until we found a trash can, but she wasn't having any part of that. Against my better judgement I stuck it in my purse. Literally,
stuck.
I don't know why there is a pencil eraser in there. Guess that's just part of being a homeschooling mom.
Three packets of Equal because I love iced tea but don't like going to restaurants that only have Splenda. Gotta have the Equal. These packets have seen better days. Time to change them out for fresh ones.
There is an index card with the names and phone numbers of friends we met up with while we were on our trip to Florida in January. I just never took the card out when I got home. There's also a business card for the tobacco cessation person at the military clinic. She helped me make an appointment for Katie Mei once. Don't know what the connection was with tobacco, but anyway, I had her card.
I also had the receipt for the kids lunch during Friday classes, a Publix receipt, and a JC Penney receipt, my shopping list from Thursday, about a dozen coupons I didn't use, a business card for Merrilee's eye doctor, and my little bundle of America World Adoption Association business cards. They still have my Maryland info on them, so they're useless at this point, anyway. Why do I have all this useless stuff?
What you don't see are my very fat wallet full of my IDs, two major credit cards, library cards for two kids and myself, coffee club cards, a Sam's Club card, and other junk I cannot remember. My cell phone and a little box of ibuprofen and compazine are also not in the photo. Don't go looking up compazine on the internet. It will tell you it's an antipsychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia. I'm not schizophrenic. At least not today. I have it for motion sickness and anxiety. Don't usually use it, but I got the Rx a couple years ago and found it more effective that other nausea drugs, so I keep it handy. And if and when I do become psychotic, it will be good to know it's there when I need it.
My new purse now has only three lip products in it--lip balm and the two skinny tubes of shaded balm. Nice for springtime! And I only put in two packets of breath freshener strips. Still need those so the Montgomery's are not offensive at church. I dumped most of the coupons, all the receipts, business cards, half-eaten candy, and the Equal.
The reading glasses, sunglasses, and pink comb stay.
I'm kind of still feeling like the crazy cat lady with a hundred cats because of my lipstick issue. Wonder if the compazine would help with that....
And I'm way behind the herd!
