baggage as well

what i wanted to "spill" was my desk drawer. there's all kinds of crazy things in there, but it's just too overwhelming, so i too grabbed my bag.



i was not prepared for how much i was going to LOVE this bag, my mom bought it for me last fall at the fremont market, while i was visiting seattle. it was love at first sight, because it is made with old ad banners, and the handles are made from old seat belts. this one happened to be on sale ($5 cheaper than the rest of the bags, but i don't know why, maybe because it it's a solid color, instead of being more multi colored?)

anyway it doesn't have any interior, pockets, and i was sure that it would become one big vacuous black hole, but it turns out that it is the PERFECT bag, it's the perfect size, it's really comfortable, it's super cute & it's not a black hole because it's MESH!! anyway, enough gushing about my bag, let's get to the contents:

• cel phone cozy that snaps on to whatever you want
• cel phone
  
• cel phone is of course adorned with small plastic glow in the dark monkey

• fancy metal swiss water bottle (it's important to stay hydrated!)
• plastic bag (given to me from from coworker, soon to be turned into "plastic yarn"

• 2 pairs of sunglasses (one pair for looking cool, the other pair is more comfortable & polarized, for better driving)
• GPS (previously posted about on monkey mind)

• work documents (i take with me back and forth to work, in case i need them at home)

• helvetica pencil case
  
• 3 mechanical pencils ( i LOVE the pentel mechanical pencil with the cushi finger grip)
• 1 pilot precise V5 extra fine rolling ball
• 1 staedtler liquid point 7
• emergency lip balm

• 2 burt's bees lip gloop
• 1 zen tazo green tea bag
• 1 orange mesh zipped bag that holds 20 hair elastics, 11 assorted hair pins, and 3 safety pins
• 1 loose hair elastic
• another loose pen,
• a big flat paper clip that fell out of my calendar/date book
• moleskine

• my calendar/datebook (which is home to all manner of assorted clippy things & a picture of my niece and nephew, there also used to be a couple of my wedding pix in here, but they were removed after the great coffee spill of 2007, which you can see evidence of on the cover)

• a crumpled up note that i was going to leave on the car that i hit last week (long story)
• fuzzy fingerless mittens (because the air conditioner in the office blows right on me)
• millie jackson caught up/still caught up (music for the car)
• steel pulse true democracy (music for the car)
• new issue of GOOD magazine (july/august 2007)
• vintage ipod circa. 2003 (mostly used for transferring files to and from work)

• 1 lonely sunflower seed
• 1 pack of dentyne ice arctic chill chewing gum

• notebook (mostly used for taking notes at work)

• wallet/ change purse

CONTENTS:

• 1 credit card
• 1 high point cafe coffee card
• 2 frequent buyer cards for the tangled web
  
• 4 of my business cards
• 1 health insurance card
• 1 rei member card
• 1 auto insurance card
• 1 pennsylvania drivers license
• 1 ATM card
• 1 sparkly marble thing from the rock store
• 1 tiny ceramic frog from japanese garden in portland
• $70 in paper dollars
• $4.52 in coins
• 1 rusty washer
  

and last but not least: my key chain

• clicker for the honda
• key for the honda
• key for the acura
• key to the office (that's the rainbow one)
• key to the house
• key to my bike lock
• super fresh club card
• fit life health club membership card
• brass savannah, ga. shipping tag
  

whew, that was a hell of a lot of work! sorry for all the blurry pictures....hurry hurry hurry! i reserve the right to edit this post later when i am feeling less frantic.

Baggage

Okay, well, I'm right down to the wire so I thought I'd just grab my bag and see what's in it.

It isn't a terribly old bag. I bought it on eBay in March for a fraction of it's worth. Of course, it came with the usual gambling aspect of not knowing exactly what it looks like, and I wasn't in love with it when it arrived. Actually, I'm still not in love with it, but it holds my old-school disc man in a way that allows me to listen while I'm mobile. The headphone wires come out of a front zipped pocket conveniently, (still haven't gravitated to Ipod-land), and it has enough room for my essentials. Basically I told myself that after I bought it I'd have to live with it for a reasonable amount of time. Incessent updating of hand/shoulder bags is a habit I don't feel yet comfortable adopting. It smacks of trend-seeking, vanity and frivolity to me. Anyhow, I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. It falls into the ever-mediocre land of 'like it enough'. So here I go...

In the main compartment of the bag I have the basics:

1. My not-so convenient change (and catch all) purse that I bought from Miss Selfridge in Canterbury for 5 pounds
2. A cheap umbrella I inherited from my old job at the pub in London where I worked until spring last year.
3. My current read: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. I'm on a Murakami marathon, devouring book after book of his. I can't seem to get enough! -- the bookmark is a postcard of a photo (Erik Kessels collection) from an exhibit at the Photographers' Gallery near Leicester Square, London.

4. Extra CDs for listening on the bus-ride to and from work: currently Glenn Gould, Beethoven Concertos, and The Rolling Stones, Flowers.
5. When out, my mobile phone is in here too, naturally.

In the random little compartments inside I find:

1. Two old National Rail travel cards (I can't seem to ever throw these away). One is from May 2 27, just this past weekend, when Dan and I went to London for the day. The other is from October 24, 2006 from Queen's Road Peckham where Dan works. I must have gone in with him in the morning to meet up with friends while he worked, which I did occasionally before starting work again.
2. An old bus pass("Gold Megarider") from last week. These weekly put me down 17 pounds to get to work.
3. An Aleve bottle filled with generic ibuprofen.
4. A card from Stone in Canterbury, the last place I got my hair cut. Whether I ever get my hair cut there again is up for question.
5. Yuzu Bergamot moisturizer from the fancy hotel Tony treated us to in San Francisco last spring.
6. A day's regimen of vitamins wrapped in cellophane that I continually forget to take.

7. A random two-pence piece.

8. A list of bus pass prices that I got from the bus station in Canterbury after I got a job there.
9. Next week's work schedule that I haven't transferred to my calendar yet... a particularly exciting week because I'm taking a lieu day next Friday for a Bank Holiday that I worked.

And onto the front zipped pocket!

1. My aforementioned disc-man with Elvis Costello's My Aim is True being the last thing I listened to. I know it seems obvious, but I hadn't listened to it in ages. Honestly!
2. My current Gold Megarider uber-expensive bus pass.
3. A hot pink hair tie (for an emergency).
4. Our brochures for the How We Are: Photographing Britain exhibition that we went to last week at the Tate Britain in London.
5. Two rechargeable batteries for when the ones in my disc man run out.
6. A 2 for 1 dining voucher for a pizza/pasta place in Canterbury that we have to use soon because it's going to expire!
7. A Pilot G5.

And hiding within things that I found after taking the original pic:

1. The actual tickets to the How We Are exhibition.
2. A loyalty card from Leon, a cool little place on Carnaby Street.

The contents of my change purse:

1. My trusty London Underground travel card holder from God knows when with stuff inside.
2. My house keys on a cheesy Whitstable tourist key ring that was attached when we moved in... with a Tesco club card thingie to add points to Dan's account (I'm afraid of Big Brother so I don't have one of my own) and a bike lock key.
3. A key to my parents house (why this needs to be constantly in my purse, I don't know).
4. A Boot's advantage card.
5. Whittard/Julian Graves employee discount card (which I've never used).
6. Two pieces of Extra spearmint gum in a package that has seen better days.
7. A receipt from Fopp on Shaftesbury Avenue in London where I bought yet another Haruki Murakami book called Norwegian Wood.
8. Another pink (??!) hair tie.

8. Three pounds and fifty-two pence.

And finally... what's in the London Underground travel card holder?

1. My New York Driver's Licence that still pictures me at age 18.
2.My NatWest debit card.
3. My Empire Credit Union (Syracuse) debit and credit cards.
4. A Kindergarten picture of my nephew Riley.
5. 2 business cards from the Gateway Inn and Suites in San Bruno, CA.
6. A May 21, 2006 receipt for $33.45 from the Thai Nakorn Restaurant in San Bruno, CA.
7. Three make-shift 'business'cards that Dan and I made with just our names and invisiblecouple e-mail address. These were to help us with our anxiety about asking people if we could take their photo on our US road trip.
8. A June 10, 2006 receipt for 38 pounds from Giorgio's, a restaurant in Margate.
9. Three old National Rail cards (I told you I couldn't throw them away) --- two from Margate to Whitstable June 7th and 16th last year when I was cleaning the house and preparing it for our move when Dan was at work... and one from March 19, 2007 in London.
10. A silly photo booth pic of youthful Dan which makes me smile every time I see it.

Now, I don't know about you... but this was surely more than a 15 minute project! -- either that or I'm having an OCD attack; I'm over three hours in since I started! :) It's been fun though.

Steed Fills the Gaps

I adopted Steed somewhere between the years 1997 and 1998 in Chicago, IL. I don’t remember the exact date because that particular time in my life is kind of a blur. Another story for another time. I was looking for a black cat. At a shelter I was shown Emma, Steed’s sister, who is equally lovely in different ways and was about as black as they come. I watched her walk around the room, curious but cautious. I could write another entry about Emma, but this one is reserved for Steed.

Steed was introduced to me as Emma’s brother. Seemingly care-free and playful, he was very different from Emma. They were living in a far too small cage for the both of them on the ground floor of a small house converted to the cat shelter. It seemed that this room was where the young cats were kept. Just as human babies, I suppose people out to adopt cats really want to adopt kittens, the tinier the better. Upon asking if there were any other cats to see, I was led to a basement where cages filled with cats were stacked floor to ceiling. This is where the older cats were sent when no one adopted them. It was as sad a sight as I'd ever seen. As far as I could tell, Emma and Steed were a short time away from this fate, as they were about the biggest kittens on the ground floor. They were about 6 months old or so when I saw them.

The shelter owner preached the virtues of taking two cats instead of one, a theory I was dubious about, but in the end I suppose I was an easy sell. I picked up Steed and held him in my hands against my body. Soft as a rabbit, it was easy to forget that if I was to take him his light-colored fur would be omni-present on clothes and furniture from that moment on. In moments I fell head over heels. I had on a favorite jacket, my orange quilted hoodie that I’ve long since worn to bits and had to dispose of. He didn’t wriggle or try to get away. He simply sat in my hands and began to paw and play with the tag of my zipper. He might have played all day and night if I didn’t stop him. I had to have him, and he came as a package.

Sometimes I joke that I got Steed by default, because I was looking for a black cat originally. But in truth it was Steed who won my heart first, and Emma who captured me later. Through the years he’s brought me much love and laughter, comfort and happiness. He continues to do this, from across the sea, and at the same time is bringing joy, along with his lovely sister, to my parents in Syracuse.

These special times include, but are in no way restricted to:

The way his purrs fill up the room the moment you look his way –-

The way he thinks he’s about 6 inches long even though he weighs about 18 pounds and barely fits on your lap. --

The way he still meows the tiniest kitten meow – and responds when you look at him and say ‘Hi’ --

The time he jumped from the back of the toilet, lost his footing and went straight IN, then out quicker than you could say Friskies –- ( lovely trapped in the bathroom kitty bath-time ensued for the next hour or so)

The way he headbutts your fist if you point it at him –-

The time he had a little poopie problem and I only noticed because he was dragging his butt for about 30 feet across my wooden floor -- (bath-time again)

The time he decided to venture outside onto a tiny 5X5 foot roof on the second floor of my coach house and was too terrified to crawl back in –-

The way he greets you at the door and follows you around the house --

The time he wouldn’t stop eating the poinsettias I was desperately trying to photograph for that year’s Christmas card –-

How he still finds the laundry basket the best seat in the house, and will sit in a box that is half his size --

How he always seems to know just when you need a cuddle most --

:)

spelling bee

in the year nineteen hundred and eighty one i was 9 years old, which means i was in the 3rd grade? (those elementary school years are kind of a blur.) when i was in grade school i was really into the spelling bee. i was a good speller, and i remember very clearly that every year my school passed out a sheet of official spelling bee words so that we could practice. (does anyone else remember these?) as soon as we got these practice words i would immediately start cramming, memorizing, asking family members to quiz me, etc...

to make a short story long i competed and won the primary level spelling bee at my grade school. the primary level was grades 1-3 or something like that and the intermediate level was for the older kids. winning the primary granted me the honor of competing in the intermediate level bee with the big kids. i won't go into how i got to the final 3 and was ROBBED because i either did not enunciate, or the "judge" was going deaf. i swear to this day that i spelled grandfather: g-r-a-n-d-f-a-t-h-e-r and not g-r-a-n-f-a-t-h-e-r, as they claimed. i was insulted and horrified to be eliminated on such an easy word, and one that i KNEW i had spelled CORRECTLY.

anyway this is not the focus of the gap i intended to fill. the object of my focus is a dictionary. as the winner of the primary spelling bee i won this dictionary.


during this period in time i had a comprehensive sticker collection. the main focus of my collection were stickers that featured any or all of these elements: rainbows, hearts, unicorns, cats, bears, stars, candy....you get the idea.

so, i had this sticker collection and i didn't know what to do with them. i didn't want to stick them on anything that i might lose or get rid of or decide i didn't like anymore. my prized and carefully curated sticker collection needed a proper and worthy place in the world. but they really did need to be stuck on something, didn't they? they were stickers after all? wasn't that their purpose?

so i decided that this dictionary that i won at the spelling bee would certainly be a cherished possession for decades to come, and was definitely a worthy of being the permanent home of my sticker collection.

i also taped in my spelling bee name tag, and it looks like i traced over my name with one of those metallic paint pens, that were all the rage

i think that it is hilarious that i (not so) very carefully traced over the teacher's handwriting with a pen. what's that about? i also traced around many of the stickers with a pen.

i remember thinking this one was very special

so this dictionary was clearly the perfect choice for immortalizing my collection . it has lasted through the years, through many moves and many, many, many, purges of crap. i have never been able to get rid of this thing. if i hadn't plastered the inside of it with stickers i'm pretty sure it would have been edited out a long time ago. now it like a little peek into the mind of a nine year old me.

FILL THE GAPS

Taking a cue from Mighty Girl's
No One Cares What You Had for Lunch 100 ideas for your blog
we are launching a monthly writing project here at Two Sides One Pond

Or first pick is FILL THE GAPS:
Use memory triggers to help you generate interesting stories. Find a photo you love, upload it, and describe everything you remember about it being taken. Or look through your library and think about where you read a particular book. There are things all around you that can help you piece together anecdotes. You can photograph an object and tell the story of that object. You can think about smells that remind you of other places and times, or textures and sounds that take you back to a memory of any kind.

mary and i will each have a post a response to this on may 1st (tomorrow) and then we will pick another for next month.

stay tuned