Spill Your (Purse) Guts! (Blogstalking Week 2)

I am one of "those". You know what we are. Those women who carry a purse within a purse. Yup, that's me. A "purse-within-a-purse-carrier".

I love my mettalic green purse. ZMrK gave it to me for Xmas a few years ago. It already has a "distressed" look that just gets more distressed the more I use it. Unfortunately, the distression is getting to the point where the leather is starting to wear away.

I got the striped outer purse at Filene's Basement for about $25. That is also beginning to get a "distressed" look, but that's more because I knock it around on the bus and subway that anything else. I meant to change to a winter one last year, but never did, and I'm thinking of making a fall/winter one for myself out of some of the fabric I have stashed away here, in plain view in my cabinets so it's one of the first things I see when I walk in (besides Ken, who is always at the door when I come home).

Let's look inside, shall we?


Sort of clockwise, from top, until I realize how hard that is: Wallet (Vivienne Westwood, I bought it at Filene's Basement in 2000 and it cost more than the two purses put together!) bandaid (because I alway have bandaids), makeup case with a kitty on it (my friend Linda gave me a tote bag that came with it), pantyliner (because. . . duh), pen (I always try to carry on), shitty-assed cell phone (do not EVER buy the cheapest Nokia you can get a Cingular. Just. . . don't!), inhaler ('nother asthmatic here, but only mildly so. The inhaler makes me really wired though, and more than a little sick feeling, so I try to avoid it), little booklet of home/cell phone numbers for everyone in my office, a nearly-gone pack of Life Savers from one of those Life Savers books one gets for Xmas (yes, it's been around that long), and the little Miller High Life keychain thing holds a pair of earplugs.

Why earplugs? Have you ever sat beneath the fire alarm at work, in a big building that always has fire alarms, and even though they have drills for floors separately, the alarms sound on every floor. It also comes in handy if you have chatty co-workers. And if you suddenly find yourself at a rock concert, you've got protection!

This is what I carry in my larger bag, the one I keep my metallic green purse in. A paperback copy of "Book of the Dead", all zombie short stories, which I've since finished, a ziploc bag of lavendar, which I don't carry around with me daily -- I had bought that at the Farmer's Market the day I took this picture, a couple of napkins/tissues, just 'cuz (I think I'm going to start calling them "crapkins". I always grab the unused napkins when I eat somewhere and just stuff them in my purse. They come in handy when out hiking.), my iPod with a cute snake cozy that I got in a Craftster swap, some cheapa$$ headphones from JetBlue that I stuffed in there because ear buds hurt my ears (they got put to the test the other day when some drunk idjits were yammering on the train. They do their job), an empty tupperware container that I bring grapes to work in every day (I put my lunch in this bag, but everything else has throwaway containers), my keys (yes, that is a clicker on my keychain and no, I don't have a dog), my Charlie card (subway/bus pass -- $59/month), my work ID (real name and company name cleverly hidden), a pair of sunglasses that are way past their prime, and a note to myself of books I wanted to look up.

So, that's it, kids. That's the stuff I can't live without.