What's in your purse?

Over at Petit Elephant, Allison's been doing a What's in Your Purse Series. I've been enjoying it, so I thought I'd share my own version with you.

Vera Bradley, yellowbird pattern, discontinued*

When I went to dump it all out, I was actually surprised at how LITTLE was in it, because it's so darn heavy. The only things I left out were my four (FOUR!) checkbooks, only two of which I use with any regularity at all and which I should stash at home in a drawer.

TANGENT: The reason I don't leave them at home in a drawer is because I have a friend who had some people visit her home who snooped in her drawers and ended up taking several blank checks with them when they left. They then USED the checks, and although she eventually got it all worked out with her bank, it was a huge inconvenience to her.

Anyway, I left the checkbooks out of the picture, but everything else is just as it was yesterday afternoon:

1. Two pairs of sunglasses from Target, which sadly replaced My Favorite Sunglasses of All Time by Fossil, which I lost at Disney World on Rockin' Rollercoaster in January.
2. A little Vera Bradley notepad and Pilot pen so I can jot down the 20 things a day I'd forget if I didn't jot them down.
3. The bag of verboten pacis that I threw in my purse when we left the beach last month so that there wouldn't be a risk of Jake seeing them on the drive home or of them showing up in our luggage when we got home. Mission accomplished. Here it is six weeks later, and I just found them.
4. A Mickey Mouse cell phone, tucked in my purse in case of a toddler meltdown that a forgotten toy MIGHT cure.
5. My wallet, also in the Yellowbird pattern by Vera Bradley, also discontinued.
6. A soft baseball we got for free at Park Day in May, courtesy of Great Clips hair salons. Used to distract Jakey occasionally.
7. Keys
8. A pack of Orbit spearmint gum
9. My little catch-all bag, a long-ago Clinique Free Gift, that holds my tape measure, lipstick, nail clippers and a tee-tiny sewing kit.

One of the side pockets holds my ID badge for work, and the other holds my cell phone.

And then we get to the Personal Pharmacy. This purse has a large zippered pocket on the rear side, and I keep some of the most important items of all time in it:

Do you particularly like how I have the same number of items in the pharmaceuticals aisle of my purse as I had in the main compartment?

1. Ibuprofen (three at the onset of a headache)
2. Extra-Strength Tylenol (mostly for other people now that I know it doesn't help my headaches)
3. Pocket spray Listerine
4. Pocket spray Neosporin (I can never reach for the Listerine in the movie theatre, because Lord knows I can't tell those two things apart by shape in the dark. SIMILAR PRODUCT DESIGN FAIL.)
5. My high-octane prescription migraine meds
6. Band-Aids
7. Eyedrops
8. Sample of Treximet, a new migraine med that my friend Honor (a nurse practitioner) wants me to try. (I've been reluctant because what I have works about 85 percent of the time, but at some point I'm gonna give it a go.)
9. A completely decimated box of Sudafed for use when I am caught off guard by a cold and can't breathe at work.

And now you know way more about me than you ever wanted to. How that makes this day any different than any other day, I couldn't tell you.

What's in your purse?

* I buy all of my purses off of eBay, where you can get lots of Vera Bradley items in discontinued styles and fabrics from sellers who live in non-smoking homes. I have gotten purses like that at 75-percent discounted prices, so it's well worth a look!