CLAY AND WATTLES

My Bag

I bring a bag with me to work every day. This is not my purse, but another bag with essentials, like part of a box of Paper Mate pencils, a ThermaCare Heatwrap, a box of Imodium, a pair of socks, a Norah Jones CD... These are permanent first-aid items. Periodically I add current magazines, payroll stub-vouchers, book lists, statements for payment or marked paid and waiting to be noticed and filed away at home. Oh, and my camera. And the battery charger.

Almost every lady here brings a bag to work. Mine is not the largest (Norma's) or the heaviest (Norma's), but most days I can't carry it by the strap, but hold it up next to me like a sack of groceries, or a baby on my hip. Over the years I've had various kinds of bags from a poppy red striped Fossil bag, to a leather bag with many compartments (very organized) to this one that is just open and everything goes in everywhichway.

Now what are the chances I will need a box of pencils or a box of Imodium, or 3 boxes of Ice Breaker gum? Not much. But the socks. My socks are not the only pair that come to work in a bag and not on feet. It gets really cold in some offices and I'm not the only one who comes prepared for frostbite. It doesn't matter. This is just something I stick stuff in every day - current book I'm reading, lunch, half loaves of bread we haven't eaten and I'm bringing to the office for toast. All these things are little bits of home that I bring with me. Like a kid's security blanket.

What I really need, and Beck and I have talked about this, is one of those small suitcases on wheels, the kind you see flight attendants pulling along behind them. Imagine the possibilities for having part of home with you. A mobile home!

...At the end of the day, after some minor cleaning of My Bag, I can see a few of the things in it, and have added some. It still weighs about the same, plus I have a manila envelope of stuff I need to file or shred. So I'll be juggling three things going out to my vehicle: the bag, the purse, the envelope. Another reason for the wheels! (Yes, it's the same banana.)