aamcnamara: (Default)
aamcnamara ([personal profile] aamcnamara) wrote in [personal profile] jenett 2013-07-04 01:37 am (UTC)

Shifting paradigms

In the past eight years of my life (high school + college) I have gotten extremely used to carrying a messenger bag everywhere. This has lots of space, so usually I carry in it, distributed to various pockets: wallet, keys, phone, inhaler, epi-pen, some tissues, pens and pencils, lip balm, flash drive, extra ink refills, extra pencil lead, eraser, spare change, swiss army knife, a full-size notebook (for lists or notes-to-self or bits of stories)...

But now, going on job interviews and things, I don't feel like a slightly-ratty messenger bag is quite the thing. So I have been using different bags, trying different configurations. And switching to a different mode of carrying means asking myself, Do I really need to carry (x) around with me everywhere I go? Often the answer is no. Having a handful of pens and pencils and a highlighter was pretty useful when I was going to class every day, but if I'm just going to go buy groceries maybe I only need one pen.

The list of Necessary Items When Going Out For Several Hours/A Day goes more like: cell phone, inhaler, epi-pen, one working pen or pencil, one Thing to Write On (can be a tiny notebook), key to current living place, lip balm, a couple of tissues, wallet.

Also frustrating is the fact that that that smaller list is more things than fit even in guy-pants pockets (the epi-pen pushes it over the edge). And I am not ever likely to carry a capital-P purse. Messenger bags are nicely non-gendered in this society--so what is the equivalent, but for kind-of-formal job-type situations? I don't know! If anyone has suggestions, I would love to hear them.

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