Fun Monday - My Life in a Bag

Today's Fun Monday is hosted by the Church Lady. She is one nosy woman because she wants to see our purses and what's inside. If I didn't know she lived in Pennsylvania, I might thing she was checking us out to see which one of us to rob. Don't let that "Church Lady" title fool you. I hear John Dillinger used that alias too.

Being an adventurer who likes to live on the wild side, I did decide to participate - and hope that Dillinger/Church Lady wasn't setting me up:

Post a photo of your purse and if you care to share, describe what's inside your purse. Do you carry everything but the kitchen sink? Or, do you prefer to go light and carry only the necessities, such as your money and cell phone.

I have to be honest here. I am not a fashion maven. Especially when it comes to handbags. If I see one and like it, I will buy it and use it until it falls apart. Literally. And I find my bags in unusual places. Like this one.

This is actually a pool/beach tote. Just big enough to fit a swimsuit, bottle of sunscreen and a really thread-bare towel into. But I really liked the design embroidered onto it and the colors jumped out at me, screaming SUMMER!!! So I bought it. For $5.00. At Walgreens.

See? It's just a big, gaping hole with a zipper across the top.

I used to have bags with lots of compartments and thought that would keep me organized. Well, let me tell you, it apparently takes a whole lot more than handbag compartments to do that! I would kind of toss things into whichever compartment my fingers first landed on and then when I needed to find something, it would take me 5 minutes of delicate searching through each one or five seconds of to-hell-with-it dumping everything out. Still, I had my reservations when I go this bag. I mean, aren't I just ASKING for trouble carrying around a zippered black hole?

Actually, the answer to that is no. Because it was a purple hole (not black as previously mentioned), I pared down the stuff that I usually carry around with me. There's a wallet with all the financial necessities in it. Two calculators (to help me keep track of my financial necessities). A little notebook for whatever notes I need to make. Four pens that actually work. A $5 gift card to Barnes and Noble (from my son), two pairs of glasses and sometimes three plus my sunglasses, which are downstairs at the moment. My MP3 player that I keep telling myself I'll learn how to use, my cell phone, pen-shaped hand sanitizer, loose change, a pull-tab (I collect them for my son's school) and various receipts - Lowe's and Publix and Barnes and Noble at the moment.

I have a tendency to toss things in there, but I've gotten pretty good at cleaning it out because I can't find anything if I don't do that on a regular basis. The other thing I love about this bag? It's big enough to carry a paperback and/or my camera in as well.

If this assignment has been a couple of weeks earlier, there would have been a red golf ball to show as well. I have no idea where it came from or how it wound up in my purse, but there it was.

Now go visit the Church Lady and see what everyone else carries around in their bags!