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19 November 2008
Okee, what's in your bag? No lying. Inspired by this metatalk comment, but it's about time for one of these threads, is it not?
Whatever bag you choose to share with us: handbag, messenger bag, backpack, lunchbox, fannypack... whevs - spit it out. intentionally included "fannypack" to make Jan giggle
Contents of my bag totally totally boring - laptop, mains adapter, mobile phone charger, mobile, wallet, mp3 player, gym widget, keys, teaching folder, whiteboard marker, USB thumbdrive, water bottle, gingerbread flavoured toffee from Ikea (OMNOMNOM recommended) - so will sit back and await interesting responses.
Purse, keys, phone, penknife, tiny flashlight, bandaids, headache tabs, pen, small writing pad, two sorts of lipgloss (frosted pink and cherry red), mints, a zillion bits of useless paper, cat-hair, and assorted fluff.
My handbag has a Kindle, two and a half tissue packets; one small package each, paracetamol and aspirin; wristwatch (stopped); cell phone; safety pin, scrunchy, a package of wet towel wipes; hairbrush; blush brush; changepurse with change that is inside a small cosmetics bag that also carries: phone cards, business cards, single serve bandage, bus tokens, shopping list, eyeglasses, lighter, two ink pens, eyeliner, small mirror, lip balm, small blush, tube of superglue, bank card, debit card, lipstick, barrette, a couple of store receipts, and little plastic baggies for doggy doo.
Both boring and embarrassing!
I have another small bag that I take just to walk the dog. It has a squirt bottle of vinegar (in case of dog attack, I hope to squirt vinegar in attacking dog's eyes), money (to pick up whatever from the small grocery on our route), cell phone when I remember it, house keys, and doggy bags.
OK. In my bag you will find:
Checkbook
2 fun-sized butterfingers (forgot about those!)
a hunk of business cards held together by a binder clip
PDA in unknown working order, and a usb cable to charge it.
Wallet
Keys
space pen
inhaler
matches
phone
triple antibiotic ointment plus pain relief
sample packet of Borage Dry Skin Therapy 24-hour Facial Repair Cream and Facial cleanser
lip balm
bandaids
two flash drives
sudafed
benadryl
gum
hair band
sample packet of sunscreen
condom
pharmaceutical giveaway pen
prescription meds
Mobile, wallet, keys, tissues, writing pad, notebook, one or two pens, bits of useless paper, paper clip, empty water bottle, a book or two, library card, tube of moisturizing cream for my hands, lip balm, laptop + adapter.
I actually cleaned (into a pile on the pillows of my couch in a frantic rush to locate something which, although vitally important at the time, I cannot recall now) my bag last night, so this isn't too representative. Although I have at least two perfectly nice oversized purse/tote containers at home, I'm currently lugging everything around in a $1 green cloth grocery sack from the local IGA because it happens to be just the right size and the handles just long enough, and I can put cabbages and cheese and the like into it without worrying about staining expensive leather. Haven't noticed too many weird looks, so it seems people just assume I've just come from the store. Yeah.
Anyway, today I've carted to work the following:
- tweezers, eyeliner, razor, cell phone, toothbrush and paste, pens, Lip Medex without which I will not leave home
- a romance novel which will remain unnamed because it isn't particularly good
- unopened Netflix envelopes containing Vatel and Ivan the Terrible Part II (they did not notice that sending Ivan the Terrible Part I as my queue suggested they should might be the polite and helpful thing to do)
- Dialogues of Plato, Fear and Trembling/Sickness Unto Death, and Leviathan (raided from my father's bookshelves at work)
- wallet with keys, cards, and voting stub which I am carrying around for small doses of hope whenever I might need it
- half a Subway tuna sandwich with olives and sweet onion sauce (it has been left out all night and yes, ask.mefi, I will eat it and no, I won't suffer the slightest gastrointestinal distress)
- checkbook which I still use even though I've moved four times since it was issued, which shows how often I use checks
- a dwindling strip of Forever stamps
- eight clean white envelopes
- Rolaids for nothing even remotely having to do with unrefrigerated tuna sandwiches
- a pair of clean black trouser socks
- a seedless orange
- a crumpled old shopping list
- slipping pretense of normalcy
Well... I have a bag... IN MY PANTS! Inside it I carry a pair of round, dangly...
...headphones!
You see, the only... ehm... mentionable bag I carry around is a small pouch where I put my headphones so they don't tangle in my pocket. Send me the bill for the brain bleach.
Diapers, botty wipes, spare outfit (Size 0 babies), disinfectant wipes, cloths, toy octopus, notepad, pens, bus card (because my stupid local bus won't join the rest of Kanto and allow suica cards BASTARDS) Suica card, spare formula sticks, keys, wallet, tissues, back up tissues, and.....
My purse contains:
iRock, Moo cards, sunglasses in a case, 2 year dayplanner, car key, set of keys for parents house, brothers house, office, lipstick, lip plumper, abreva, small bottle of febreeze, tape measure, tissues, orange tic tacs, small bottle of tylenol, lip gloss, candy, eyeshadow, hand lotion, calling cards, powder, digital camera, small notepad, 2 pens, hairties, two lighters, a binder clip, 3 paper clips, 1 bandaid, 1 face wipe, change purse, tide-to-go pen, jump drive, poetry book, another lip gloss/exfoliator thingy, cell phone, and a paperback book.
The backpack has:
notebook with all readings printed out for class, textbook, spiral notebook, folder with returned assignments and syllabus in it, several pens, pencils, and 2 highlighters.
My "bag" is my bomber/flight jacket right now, and right now it holds a pair of holey mittens, my housekeys, a pen, a lighter, a pack of cigarettes, a matchbook, CDs with videos of the High Line, a tube of medicated Chapstick, and my iPod. But now you've reminded me to move my business cards from my nice purse to my jacket, so they're in there now too!
Top pocket: Obama pin badge I found on the NYC subway; Luncheon voucher for Sri Lankan hotel; 20 Sri Lankan Rupee note.
Main pocket: Hyatt hotel pen; retractable iPod charging cable; Poundland umbrella; deodarant can; Ladyhawke pin badge; my employment contract; empty Sainsbury's carrier bag; Lovefilm leaflet; clip that's meant to hold main flap closed but regularly come off end of its strap; Japanese Starbucks receipt; Halloween flavour Jaffa Cake Mini Roll wrapper.
Front pocket: Completely unnecessary number of disposable contact lenses; wind up rechargeable LED torch; AA battery; padlock keys; camera battery; bus ticket from Iwakuni; 12 Japanese Yen; viewfinder eyepiece from a different camera; velcro cable tie thingy. No camera, no device that takes AA batteries and no padlock.
Wallet, keys, cellphone, random change, notebook which also holds coupons, pen (hopefully, because they migrate), mints tin of earrings, Starcracks cards (somehow I'm constantly acquiring them), old ticket stubs, nail file, spare pad and tampon, compact mirror, eyeliner, spent bullet casing, random lonely beads, a stud from a belt, random receipts, and the coin purse that holds my DS games that I keep forgetting to take out.
-Moleskine pocket notebook
-Moleskine sketchbook
-folder of source photos for cartooning and drawing
-mesh bag with about a dozen markers and pens
-MP3 player (no headphones since one of the kittens chewed through them - getting new ones today)
-really old issue of Time Out Chicago (going in the recycle bin now)
-pack of Orbit gum (citrusmint-mmmmm)
-digital camera
-a few extra pens (other than the drawing pens)
-about eight bucks in change
-handi wipes and shout wipes
I tend to be like a boy scout and normally keep the bag loaded with various things I might need "just in case", so this is actually pretty light for me.
In my bag you will NOT find my rosebud salve. I have NO idea where it got to, and I am unhappy about that.
In my bag you will find:
in the outer left compartment: cellphone (with almost no charge left, housekeys, fresh citrus Listerine pocket pack, ten personal business cards, a recipe for savory cheese biscotti, a shopping list for a mushroom bread pudding
in the zipper compartment: stamps; post office receipt, checkbook, mortgage coupon book, student loan payment coupon book, iShuffle, fresh citrus Listerine pocket pack, two plastic spoons from Berry chill, two envirosax; my portable harddrive
in the inside the zipper compartment zipper compartment: my wallet, my change purse, my prescription, 3 receipts I have not yet added into my ledger
in the outer left compartment: three pens, my red agenda/calendar, a piece of paper wrapped around chewed gum (which is now in the trash)
in the zipper compartment of the outer left compartment: simply sleep tablets, my pill box, a compact mirror, three lipsticks, one lip balm, one eyeliner pencil, my iShuffle docking station, my business card case with business cards
in the outside pocket: a plastic wallet with my CTA pass, a metra ticket to my parents' house, a metra ticket to my Nonnie's house, and a metra schedule; and a ticket stub from the Lyric's production of Lulu
At this exact moment in time, having just gotten to work:
box Amy's frozen black bean/veg enchilada
vehicle tax notice from the county
camera in camera bag
reading glasses in green case
orange
assorted cryptic sticky notes
2 packs Camel lights
green cosmetic pouch containing tampax, pads and secret store of cash
long grocery store receipt - I have enough points for my free horrible tiny frozen turkey! Yay, me!
wallet
black cosmetics pouch containing magnifying glass, sewing kit, wet wipes, 2 lipsticks that were my mom's, tin with Wicked Witch on front containing antidepressants, 2 combs, handkerchief
small spiral bound graph paper notebook
altoids tin containing aspirin, ibuprofen, herbal pms pills, gasX and klonopin for emergencies
ginger altoids tin containing ginger altoids
2 checkbooks
wallet
grocery store coupons
lighter
target receipt
1 thumbtack, ow, that's what I get for stealing office supplies
1 cup hook
$2.17 in change
ipod nano
business cards
Do pants pockets count? Pants: Wallet, work phone (a.k.a. the Bat Phone) personal cel, little wallet, loose change. I'm wearing jeans today, so if I were in dress pants, this stuff would be in the bag.
My "bag": circa notepad, small picture album of the kids, lunch, and my travelling toiletries collection, including makeup. For whatever reason, my big wallet is not in the bag today.
Also my big card carrier - all our insurance cards (we all have two each now) my frequent buyer stuff, misc. credentials, and my favorite, my get out of hell free card.
Fake leatherman. Small flashlight/laser pointer. A fork? lip gloss, gum, and loose change.
My "Don't Leave Home Without It" Bag: Bike lock. Bike pump. Hex wrench. Headlamp. Ankle reflectors. Gym locker lock. Keys. Wallet. Passport. Lip balm. Listerine strips. iPod Nano. Headphones. Copy of A New Earth. Cubase license dongle. Pen. Emergency supply of Liquid Silk.
Cell phone
Ipod Nano
Keys
Wallet
Coupon clutch/coupons
Check book (hu?)
Gum and gum detritus – regular and nicorrette
Pens
5 or 6 lipsticks/glosses/balm
Hairbrush
To-do list
Toothbrush and toothpaste, travel size/kit
Eyedrops
Prescriptions
Dust & crap
Gym Bag –
Tennis shoes
Socks
Sweat pants
Tee shirt
Jacket
Plastic grocery bag
Umbrella
Scope
Body wipes
Antibacterial gel smelling of melons
Deodorant
401K and 457 statements
Directions to access work desktop remotely
Hospital discharge papers
Pony Tail holders
Hair spray
1 yellow highlighter
Some plastic sandwich bags
Feminine protection
Half started list of assets to go with the will I did this year
I also travel with food and beverages, but because I’m at work, that’s all in the fridge or the desk right now.
I hate lugging around a diaper bag, so instead I just carry a roomy purse. This awesome bacon and eggs bag, to be exact.
my wallet
Two diapers
Ziploc bag of wipes
camera
juice box
gummi snacks
gum
crayons
mini coloring book
toy cars
hand sanitizer
Shout wipes
sewing kit
lipstick
sunglasses
first aid kit
ipod shuffle
spare socks
Bike lock (u-lock and cable)
Bike gloves
Checkbook
Ballcap
Hearing aid batteries
Old bills that I should shred
A container of Vitamin E caps
Water bottle in outside pocket
That is pretty much it for now. My cellphone, keys, and little credit card case ride around on my body all day.
I have the Big Bag today, so this might take a while:
Apple
Chocolate bar
Gum
Cell phone
Business cards
metrocard
wallet
cash, change
tampons
plastic baggie
bobby pins, mascara, eyeshadow, lip gloss, small container of tinted moisterizer, tiny perfume bottle
2 New Yorker magazines
2 napkins
fold-up hairbrush/mirror
shirt and undies for tomorrow (sleeping at my aunt and uncle's)
Mad Men season 1 to watch tonight
checkbook and bills to pay
pen
tissues
keys
Main pocket:
- tomato-broccoli bowtie pasta in a screw-top Tupperware
- large Fuji apple
- ziploc containing change
- small bag of energy gels plus a Clif bar
- cinnamon chip scone that I'll actually eat right now, thanks... OM NOM NOM
- cosmetic kit full of girly stuff like lipgloss, mascara and hair ties
- towel (because you never go anywhere without)
- Portland Cyclewear messenger knickers
- REI fleece hoodie
- knee warmers
- 1 pair Smartwool ski sox
- Boure stretch windproof gloves
- 1 pair EU size 41 Sidi mountain bike shoes (red)
Front pocket:
- 3x5" Moleskine reporter's notebook full of lists, contact info and sketches
- 3 year old 1gb USB drive
- 3g iPod Nano; skullcandy earbuds
- white cotton handkerchief
Pen pockets:
- 2 Sanford Uniball Deluxe Micros (black, blue)
- 1 dual-end Sharpie (broad + fine point)
- pack of orange post-its
- good quality steel nail file
- Burt's Bees lip balm
oh right, and in the front (zippered) pocket:
-wallet containing debit card, RTD pass, library card, Barnes & Noble member discount card, $7.43 and a bunch of receipts.
I just got money and smokes and shit and a cellphone and keys and an Ipod and some of those hippie shopping bags all scrunched up with a rubberband and a bunch of bills and a note book and an umbrella and a ripped up copy of Harpers and a peachtree backup cd and a softcase for my macbook and an emergency blanket and some handwipes and a whistle. Why do I carry around so much shit, exactly?
My wallet
A pair of gloves
An ID card holder with my employee ID on one side and my CTA card on the other
A tiny hairbrush
My cel phone inside a cel phone holder
Two pills of ibuprofen inside a keychain pill case
A small microfiber glasses wipe
A pair of earrings
A Spyderco pocketknife inlaid with mother of pearl and abalone shell (a gift) in a suede holder
A twist tie
Three safety pins
A mechanical pencil
A Leatherman Squirt
Lip balm (Softlips vanilla flavor!)
Something that goes over your thumb to hold books open
A fortune: "Grace brings trust, appreciation, love and prosperity."
When I walked into work this morning, it contained:
Laptop
Various laptop accessories
Notebook
640 GB worth of external harddrives
TomTom GPS with accessories
Ipod with battery pack
Pens/pencils
Mints
AND:
One (1) box of St. Dalfours Classic Breakfast Tea
I'm trying to quit carrying so much stuff all the time, so, in my pockets: cash, ID, bank card, cellphone, Sharpie, work keys, regular keys, handkerchief, multitool. In a canvas grocery bag in my truck: two books, bottle of wine, medicine. In a canvas grocery bag in the breakroom refrigerator: pasta in Tupperware, two apples.
I have no bag, that seems to freak people out sometimes. I carry my wallet, my phone, my iPod, keys. That's it. I have a laptop but I leave it at work unless I'm traveling.
I have two bags. The everyday bag is a smallish battered leather backpack, not quite big enough for hardcover books. It has: keys (currently clipped to the outside), phone, gps, a couple of small hardbound notebooks, wallet, two or three flash drives, sunscreen, almonds, liquid echinacea extract, a couple of pens, last June's graduation program from the school where I used to work, a Visa gift card for $25 that I have to use sometime before March of 2009, and a bunch of crumpled-up receipts.
For work or any place where I need a laptop or big books I take a soft vertical shoulder bag, reversible brown nylon to brick-red suede-y stuff. In there is not my laptop right now, because I'm using it to type this. But I do have a marked-up printout of something I've been working on, plus a couple of old New Yorkers. Until recently there was also a big container of Trader Joe's Greek yogurt, but that's been transferred to the refrigerator.
My purse contains:
- credit cards, library cards, driver's license, proof of insurance & expired permanent resident card
- letter from USCIS extending my expired permanent resident card
- scrap paper with some ideas for a terzanelle
- mini maglite
- chapstick
- lipstick (which I never wear and should probably throw away)
- sunglasses
- birth control
- antihistimines
- $25 gift card for Olive Garden
- miscellaneous receipts
- spare key for my husband's car
- Canadian Tire money for when I'm next in Canada
- keys
Normally my cell phone would be in there but it's on the charger.
I love my bag and refuse to retire it even though it's finally falling apart, as the bag itself is made from black car upholstery material and the strap is the stuff they make seatbelts from (looks neat, indestructible--the strap, that is).
In the little zipper pocket I have: keys, passport, business card for nice woman who didn't fuck up my hair when I finally broke down and had it trimmed, lighter flints, change, old receipt, USB drive of photos I will eventually get printed, Listerine strips.
In the main part of the bag: sadly neglected journal that seems to be becoming an address book, wallet, ancient ziplock bag of once-wet wipes, ziplock bag of Altoids mints (I'm using the tin as a portable ashtray), BC Ferries schedule, brochure for Galiano Island, Victoria Clipper baggage claim check, ticket stubs for a Birmingham Barons baseball game, the Tom Waits show last July, and the DBT/Holds Steady show, ancient and ineffective L'Occitane anti-mosquito wipes, sunglasses, lens from cheap pair of shades I bought in Belize that lasted all of a week, a ziplock bag of zip ties (for to lock luggage without losing a lock to baggage inspectors), tampons, various and sundry bits of paper that I'm sure you don't want to know about. When I leave the house, it also contains at least two packs of cigarettes (Winstons taste good like a cigarette should), cell phone, and the zippo I bought at the Double Down Saloon in Vegas when getting torqued with Zack_Replica, jonmc & Pips the night before their wedding. The paint's almost completely rubbed off, but what do you want for twenty bucks, I guess.
The bag I had with me today was a big wheeled bag because I'm working from home for the next two days and had to bring lots of files home.
So my bag contains:
- seven large files
- purse (wallet to Americans) containing debit card, about £20 and various other reward/appointment cards and a photo of my boo
- security pass for the office
- mobile phone
- book to read on the train.
My keys are in my coat pocket, along with my Oystercard.
When I go out I usually just take a small handbag with my purse, keys, phone, small hairbrush, lip balm and a mineral makeup compact.
Oh, and a couple of pens, including the lovely Mont Blanc that I got as a going-away gift from a workplace a few years back and refused to carry for ages for fear of losing it, until I decided that even an expensive pen is wasted if you don't carry the damned thing around and use it for crying out loud, and since my life has been so peripatetic for the last few years it's probably safest on my person.
hairbrush
pill container with the 30 meds, supplements, and vitamins I take a day
credit cards etc
appointment book
Blackberry
alcohol wipes
too many pens in a weird cloth zipper bag shaped like a piece of candy with a cupcake on it that says "fad hamburger"
Altoids
make up
bottle of water
Shout wipes
hand sanitizer
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
crossword puzzle book
keys with a Darwinia key chain
Poison Apple perfume by Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs
Laptop
Laptop power supply (including car adaptor)
Mini-mouse
External HDD (250GB)
2 x flash drives (64MB and 4GB)
iPhone
Headphones (Sony, not the crappy Apple ones that keep falling out)
iPhone USB cable
generic USB cable
Work mobile phone (and charger)
NextG Modem
SecureID Token
Camera
Umbrella
Current book
Assorted stationery (pens, pencil, post-it notes, highlighters, mini-ruler)
Calculator
About $10 in change
Keys
Wallet
Train timetable
Chewing gum
Emergency stash of cash
House plans and whatever quotes are current
Sunglasses
I also sometimes have my Work ID card, security card and Go Card in there, but they are usually swinging off my belt on one of those retractable thingies.
I think that's all. maybe I should take more stuff around with me in case I need it...
A big wooden "pencil", which opens and inside are six small wooden pencils in various colors.
A lock with keys for my gym.
A small ballerina fairy type creature on a string.
Seemingly thousands of receipts and bank-carbon copies that I keep shoving in there meaning to sort later when I get home, and never do.
Chestnuts.
A rock.
Tiny dice and silver beads from a broken bracelet I keep meaning to fix.
Four different lipglosses, one lipstick, one lip liner - none in the right color.
Train tickets.
Battery charger for my phone...oh so that's where it was hiding.
A bunch of Danish coins, one from 1927 - all worthless.
- Wallet
- Work passcard
- MP3 player & headphones
- Notebook
- Pen
- Small folding hairbrush
- Small handcream
- Lip balm (specifically, the best - Blistex Lip Medex)
- Currently, three lipsticks of almost the same colour. But usually one.
- Usually, also a makeup bag containing:
-- Makeup
-- Nail file
-- Nail cutters
-- Eye drops
-- Band-aids
-- Small scissors
-- Tweezers
-- Band-aids
-- Blotting tissue
-- Floss
I'm with gaspode. I try to carry only the essentials:
Spare keys
EZ pass
fold-up mylar poncho thing
spare clutch cable
spare clutch lever
spare brake lever
allen wrench multi-tool
maglite w/spare batteries
a roll of plastic bags
fork lock
sidestand puck
faceshield antifog stuff
maintenance log + pen
waterproof matches
roll of quarters (for emergency/parking)
earplugs
spare earplugs
bungee net
first aid kit
tire pressure gauge
My work backpack: coffee thermos in left side pocket ($2 cups of coffee just got to be too much); umbrella on right if rain threatens (why are weatherfolks so afraid to say rain nowadays?); large center pocket has work binder with attendance and lesson plan sheets, copies of course syllabi, various memos (I try to keep as few of these as possible), a small zippered bag with blood pressure pills, advil, and feminine supplies, a magazine and book (Poets & Writer's and Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, at the moment), cell phone, ipod (loaded with an audio book of In the Time of the Butterflies, which we're listening to in class as we read along) and my pink lunch bag with the straps cut off; in the small outer zipped pocket, my work keys, which I swap with my home keys to and from work, and a small, round collapsible hairbrush and mirror; in the large outer front pocket, pens, mechanical pencil, an old bottle of nose spray from when I had a cold, a pencil sharpener (the one in our classroom's broken), and a kitchen timer I set each day for the students for 30 minutes of silent reading (thank heavens for daily silent reading).
That was surprisingly fun (if a bit obsessive). Goodness, I'm boring.
"HTML Complete" book, purse, large art pad, small art pad, new 6'cord to replace the one the bunny ate (she's fine as are the new cord protectors), extra canvas shopping bag, pencils, school transcript requests, Red Mill catalog.
These items really say a lot about me and how I live. How revealing...
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
