Salon post: April 27

[jenett]

Welcome to this week's salon post!

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Topic of the week
I have been having one of those weeks where lots of little things go wrong - I managed to lose a shoe in the mud due to a poorly considered choice of cutting across rain-soaked ground from the parking lot at work yesterday (which lead to me ducking into the nearest building, rinsing my shoes in the sink, and then having cold damp feet all day).

And today I forgot to do the one bit of makeup I do (concealer to cover psoriasis on my forehead), and managed to stop by CVS (local drugstore) to get what turned out to be totally not the right thing. (to be fair, 7:15 in the morning is not good shopping brain for me.)

This leads me to say: What do you stash where it might be useful? That might be carrying stuff in a bag or purse, but with some things stashed in a car, or kept at work (or whatever other places you spend time that aren't home)

What I've been up to:
Much writing, and working on prepping for different things (next week involves the start of allergy shots, and a really annoying errand, so I'm trying to figure out how to do them both sensibly.


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Comments

[senmut]

Work Drawer has my 'save me stash'. There is normally some form of cheap, shelf stable food in there (currently mac&cheese cups), ibuprofen (need to change out to naproxen next time, tums, cold med (I think this needs replenished), and at least a bag of chips' worth of change.

Backpack, which goes on all trips as well as to and from for work, holds a toiletry kit, pads, writing utensils, and a small notebook in addition to carrying the electronics.

I have recently placed an excedrin tube back in the car, but it may move to the backpack, as it is not wise to leave drugs of any sort in the extreme heat a car can attain. (PSA that most might know: This also goes for plastic water bottles and sodas; the heat WILL cause water bottles to leach chemicals/degrade, and the soda chemicals to change.)

[rmc28]

I too have a stash in the Work Drawer. Ibuprofen (between migraine and RSI and a dodgy post-pregnancy skeleton, I can go through a lot), emergency antihistamines in case I forget to take them before leaving home, and emergency food (currently tinned beans, fancy dried couscous, instant porridge, and UHT milk). I also keep spare boxes of tissues in there, and my least-favourite pair of glasses. I did have an entire change of clothes in the back of the deeper drawer, because about once or twice a year I get caught out by weather on the way to work, but on a recent clearout I realised I didn't fit half the contents, so I brought it home and haven't yet replaced it.

I have a small zipped toiletries bag which holds my migraine medication, extra painkillers, and cold meds. Normally this lives in my little backpack which goes with me everywhere. Also in that backpack live a spare hairbrush, a bag of spare hair elastics, a travel glasses-cleaning kit, and one of those elasticated cloth tubes that can be a neckwarmer or a hat, or a balaclava as needed. I have at least three pens and a notebook in there at any time, often more. Plus a folding plug, portable battery pack, and both kinds of cables to charge my commonly-carried electronics. And usually a lightweight cloth shopping bag in case I need to carry more than will fit in the backpack.

I used to keep some emergency painkillers in the pocket of every coat I owned (as well as the backpack and the desk drawer), but after I had children I stopped doing that because I didn't trust them not to go rummaging.

[senmut]

Very well equipped!

[cosmolinguist]

I have three pairs of headphones, one for my bag, one by the bed (because I listen to audiobooks when I have insomnia) and one downstairs (for watching stuff on my laptop/tablet because my husband is almost always playing music when he's awake).

Three seems like a lot, but I'd it's any fewer I found I always wanted some where they weren't, or left some someplace I couldn't remember.

[senmut]

This is a very wise course for headphones.

[alexseanchai]

I just, the one surviving working pair of Good Headphones lives in my purse. Your plan is better but the Good Headphones are discontinued!

[cosmolinguist]

Aw, it's sad when there are no more Good Headphones.

[jenett]

I do something similar with charging cords for the phone (have one at work, one in the car, one for charging overnight, and one attached to the computer, which is at the other end of the bed.)

And yes, on the headphones - I am hoping 'add another set' goes in the budget next month, so I don't have to move the work ones.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, similarly, if I don't have about three there's never one where I need it. This is a problem compounded by there being only three outlets in the downstairs of our house (excluding the kitchen) and my phone suddenly being incredibly bad at holding a charge...

[elisem]

Hmm! I had never considered the option of multiple charging cords, and now suddenly the world looks full of possibilities undreamt.

What I have been doing: the cord and plug live in the zipper pouch which lives in my purse. When I charge the phone, I leave the zipper pouch and its purse segment open, which reminds me to put the cord and plug back before I go anywhere. For various medical reasons including massive ADHD, I am careful to keep this habit going. But having a cord near bed for charging at night and a cord in the purse for charging on the go has one huge benefit hitherto unconsidered here: I'd have an extra if one of them malfunctioned.

Hmmm! This may be a very good idea.

[jenett]

You can also get cords with other qualities! After I killed a couple on the one by my bed (which is the one that gets put in weird angles all the time), I got this extra durable one, and it's been holding up really well.

Before that I got a mixed pack of lengths, so I have a long one that goes to the power strip the computer runs off, a shorter one for taking with me to go out, etc. (And an extra very long is helpful for travel.)

[rmc28]

Oh yeah! I have one pair by the bed, one plugged into the work PC, and one in my backpack. Plus I have my bone-conduction headphones which live near the front door, because I usually only wear them while walking or cycling.

[cosmolinguist]

Ah yes, I also have Bluetooth headphones for when I go to the gym, but sadly they haven't gotten a lot of use so I forgot about them. :(

[alexseanchai]

I carry a cute lil backpack as well as a purse, most of the time. The backpack is for pharmaceuticals and books. XD

Funny how often that wee lil first aid kit in my purse comes in handy.

[alexseanchai]

Sooo. People who have had to look outside your own social circles for someone to share an apartment with.

How do?

[finch]

I have never had to but I feel like I should express my sympathy in advance.

[alexseanchai]

accurate

[aedifica]

This is a bit late for you, but: I use Craigslist, with some success. I post an ad with photos of the apartment and a very long text section about the apartment, utility prices, what I'm looking for in a housemate, and what I'm like as a housemate. I also say "If you respond, tell me something about yourself." If they don't, I ignore their email. If they do tell me something about themselves and there's nothing obvious to show we'd be a bad fit, I schedule a time for us to meet, ask each other questions, and have them see the apartment.

Things I have learned:
*Listen to yourself. If someone doesn't quite seem right to you, don't invite them to live with you.
*Try to avoid letting enthusiasm triumph over your good sense. If a person seems great but they have no income to pay rent with, maybe don't put yourself in a position where you're dependent on them paying their share of rent.

I hope you have found good housemates already! Good luck if you haven't found them yet.

[baratron]

I'm stuck on the phone to Air Transat and the on-hold music is a load of terrible covers. Some woman singing Knocking on Heaven's Door as a ballad, then something which I swear is a modern pop cover of the Lambada with English lyrics. Then a cover of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. You know how that's supposed to be a funky song with really sharp timing? Imagine it sung as a warbly ballad. Oh gods.

Then there was a cover of Phil Collins' Another Day in Paradise, as a high-energy pop song with a disco beat over the top, followed by a few things I didn't recognise. And now Patience by Guns N' Roses, with a disco beat over the top.

Kill me now.

[jenett]

My question in this case is how did they manage to find a collection of that kind of thing?

[baratron]

IT'S A MYSTERY.

They didn't just murder Patience by Guns N' Roses, but also Paradise City. Which had country'n'western style guitars. And instead of a disco beat over the top, there was something which reminded me of Cotton-Eye Joe.

I literally did not know it was possible to do that to music.

[maellenkleth]

in the remainder bin at Honest Rafe's Five and Dime Store?

[elisem]

Alternate universe with handy interdimensional online shopping?

[jenett]

Answering my own question:

My usual go-to-work bag (in my case the Tom Bihn Maker's Bag) has a smaller bag in it (Currently the Tom Bihn Sidekick, but I am contemplating whether the Travel Cubelet would fit everything I need in there)

Big bag, on the average day:
- Smaller bag
- Lunch (which takes up most of the space)
- Water bottle
- Couple of pads
- Few pens, etc.

If I know I'm going to be out in different places, it probably also has the iPad and keyboard, and a battery pack.

Smaller bag:
- Wallet
- Rescue inhaler
- Small pill box with meds I take at work, a round of my evening meds in case I get stuck somewhere, plus a couple of ibuprofen or naproxen sodium and a couple of allergy pills.
- I have had band-aids and a few other first aid things previously, and need to put them back in a better configuration.

And based on today, I should move the running out tube of concealer (the size of a lipbalm, so not big!) into this bag and put a new one in my swimming bag.

[aedifica]

If you'd like to borrow a Travel Cubelet to see if the size works for you, I have one I'm not using! (It turned out I prefer the horizontal Side Effect.)

[jenett]

I would be very interested in at least seeing about applying objects to its insides!

(I have a Side Effect too! But I just swapped my wallet from a bulkier one back to a thinner one, which may make the Travel Cube work better again.)

[pameladean]

I work at home and I don't drive, which means my stashing habits are a little odd. I do keep a tube of moisturizer in the car I ride in most often, because using the kinds of soap they have in public restrooms makes me feel my hands are turning into alligators if I don't immediately put moisturizer on them.

I also keep moisturizer, lip balm, energy bars, an eyeglass repair kit (though I've only ever needed the tiny screwdriver from any of them), a little umbrella, and a handful of pens in every backpack I use -- I have a small day pack and a larger padded one that will protect a laptop from damage better, plus a pack for hiking, which latter also has a large assortment of things like a travel bottle of rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, and tweezers for the better removal of ticks; those cardboard funnels for use in peeing outside, along with wipes and tissues; sunscreen; various nature guides; more energy bars; a space blanket or two; and some tubes of tablets that you can put in your water bottle to make a rehydrating drink.

I have trouble remembering to add a water bottle to any of these; the water bottles seem to exist in a constant state of containing an inch of old stale water, so that they need to be washed or preferably run through the dishwasher, which fact I only recall at the last minute when it's too late. Obviously I need to develop habits around removing them from the pack as soon as I get home, emptying and rinsing them, at the very least.

If I have good capacious pockets I'll put the lip balm, a travel tube of moisturizer, and a pen in there; maybe an energy bar too.

P.

[eclips1st]

My purse needs to have:
- something to write
- reusable bag (that folds up all neat.)
- ibuprophen and acetaminophen
- emergency period stuff.

When I get all organized, I manage to stash bandaids, chapstick, perhaps a few makeup things (eyeliner, eyebrow pencil) and mint.


My work bag (what I take into the classroom) has mostly stuff to write (coloured pens, mechanical pencil, eraser, white board markers of all colours, chalk, highlighters, etc.) (like all teachers?) again, some hidden period items and a usb key.

My desk at work is another story...
Pens, markers, white out, paper, note pads, etc. are the usual.

But also unused plastic utensils kept from take out in case I forget to bring some from home. Also, reusable bags, a shawl, fingerless gloves, mints, tea and a bunch of fiddling toys (stress balls, etc.) I probably have more period things just in case. (I'm not regular. Have had too many accidents to count them.) oh and a roll of paper towel I have had since my first day at the college. It had been left behind in my then new office, and I snatched it just in case... I never ever use it because there's a bathroom 10 feet away, and it's become sentimental at this point! A symbol of sorts.

[redbird]

Things I currently carry in my daypack (with some overlap of other people's lists) include: tea bags; dark chocolate; a notebook and pens; sanitary napkins and tampons; hand lotion; a small flashlight; lip balm; naproxen, benadryl, and anti-gas pills; a reusable shopping bag; a quart zip-lock bag (mostly for use as an emergency ice pack); over-the-counter dry mouth spray; and an energy/meal replacement bar.

Those are in no particular order, and the list is almost certainly incomplete, since I decided to do this without opening the bag. It's about time to start carrying a tube of sunscreen again, and I think I don't actually need/want the energy bar.

That list changes slowly over time, as I rebalance "I might want this" and trying to limit both weight and volume. The notebook and pens have been on the list longest, followed by the flashlight; I use the tea a lot more often, but sometimes you really need light.

[finch]

I have what's billed as a "golf bag" but is basically a large pouch that I move between bags as necessary. It's got my sewing tin, my medical tin, watercolors, my spare pocket knife, change, a bandana, the gloves for when my fingers get tingly, headphones, charger, other charger, washi tape, glue, etc. It used to also have my pens but lately my pen stash is a bit ridiculous and I need to do something about that. Probably admit that I don't need to carry two dozen different colors with me at all times.

Often there is a snack for the kid but sometimes she eats the snack.

[maellenkleth]

'washi tape'?

[finch]

Patterned tape that you find at stationary and craft stores. It's all the rage with decorative planner nerds. I like using it to make dividers and such in my bullet journal or attach other things.

[jenett]

Do you have washi tape sources you particularly like online? Asking for a friend.

[finch]

I do not, mostly because I find it kind of expensive so I only buy it on clearance. XD

[autumnesquirrel]

"The Very Dangerous Store" in Arlington Center has a good selection of washi.

I get it from https://www.etsy.com/shop/MechaKucha808Tape sometimes, or JetPens, but mostly just randomly as found.

[maellenkleth]

Cool beans! I haven't gotten past the 'assemble a Filofax' stage in the past (ahem) forty years of using them. Decoration sounds like a lot of fun.

My boss, who uses a mobile phone to keep a calendar, looks at my Filofax book as if it were something from the Dinosaur Era.

[finch]

I did a stint as a Franklin covey person but it seemed like Filofaxers always had the coolest accessories. XD

[maellenkleth]

Filofax has the best maps. I have laminated maps of Boston, Manhattan (for sentimental reasons), Vancouver, and London, and one-page paper maps of downtown Moscow and Beijing (strictly for business: Beijing must be the most horrible city in the world!). The Boston map almost-but-not-quite reaches my sister's house in Davis Square.

Filofax also has some neat paper refills, like the eminently-useful 'travel details' and 'menstrual calendar'.

Come to think of it, I bought my Filofax book (green and brown leather) in Highbury in the summer of '77, when I was fiddly-farting around in England and Wales for the summer. Every now and then I give it a going-over with boot wax, and it's held up nicely all those years ^_^

[jazzyjj]

Well...perfect timing because I just went and saw my dermatologist for a follow-up and for something else. He prescribed me some ointment, and I am keeping that on my bathroom sink. It is one of those vanity sinks so there's plenty of room. It turns out that this ointment has been working a lot quicker than we thought it would, but rather than just return it I think I'll keep it around just in case. I keep all my other meds in a cabinet under the microwave. When my work met in my building, I just zipped my laptop computer up in its accompanying case. That laptop unfortunately passed away and I now have this trusty little MacBook Air, but I kept the case from the other laptop. So whenever I go somewhere and take this thing with, I zip it up in the case and put it in my backpack which I then zip up. My talking watch is on my dresser along with some other things.

[maellenkleth]

In the back of the big file drawer in the colliery office:

-- a can-opener and two tins of clam chowder soup
--four packets of tea (Lapsang, Assam, Oolong and Bancha
-- a bottle of red Tabasco sauce (for the monthly office catering-in luncheon, invariably greasy and bland to the point of inedibility)
-- two pairs of fuzzy socks with nubbly bits on their soles
-- a corkscrew
-- a little stubby multibladed screwdriver
-- a combination wire-stripper and cap-crimper (for blasting caps down in the mine)
-- a random collection of retroreflective safety stickers (for one's mine-helmet)

[eclips1st]

Completely unrelated... a couple of years ago at a teaching colloquium I was attending a talk on creative writing and one of the ways to develop characters was to bring in a real or "fake" purse, empty its contents and have the students create a character from what was in the purse.
There's enough juice in this thread to write something for sure!

[elisem]

I have a purse. It's technically not the only purse I have, but it's been the only purse I use for a while now, and I'm a little reluctant to repack things into any of the other purses I have, so there it is. (Although there's a hilarious teapot purse I miss using, and local fan Bonnie made me a needle-felted dormouse to live in it, so I might do a purse swap sometime for a fine spring day. But it's not large enough to hold all I like to carry.)

This purse is three purses all clipped together on one strap. It's the Connectables style from Maple Leather. They were exhibiting at an American Craft Council show a few years back, and I bought a black brocade set from them. I delayed wearing it until my previous bag was utterly done, and now I'm so used to it that it would be a major change to do anything else.

The smallest pouch is on top and holds bus pass, rescue inhaler, writing implements, handkerchief, eyeglass cleaning cloth, comb, cough drops, hard candy, lip balm (Haus of Gloi root beer float flavor), a handle adaptor for carrying thin-handled bags without pain, some loose currency suitable for tips or quick purchases when it is disadvantageous or not security-minded to get out my wallet, my cards (moo.com) and their tiny card holder, and not much else because not much else will fit.

The medium pouch is in the middle, and it holds my Disabled Persons Parking Identification Placard (the five year one, to which I have now progressed, so I don't have to renew it every six months), a green Swedish forkspoonknife made of what seems like plastic and is very likely some green Swedish recycled fir tree cones and salvaged tourist trash or something, an RFID-blocking wallet that's new and which I am liking a lot so far, a hospital-style paper face mask, my house keys with their fob and attached tiny UV light (for testing fluorescence in beads, glass, and stones) and The Useful Pouch, which is actually a small crossbody purse with a long thin strap that can be retracted inside so it doesn't tangle with other things.

The Useful Pouch itself is about six and a half inches by four and a half inches and it carries: a tiny sewing kit of the airplane-or-hotel fix-it variety from back when they had those, a badge that says "I read lips, and I haven't seen a word you've said" (from nancybuttons), an extra convention badge lanyard of the good swiveling clip-on type, a tiny ziplock holding two ear nuts (earring stoppers for pierced earwires), a small squared tube containing an eyeglass repair kit with screwdriver and parts, a packet of two foam earplugs, several heavy duty bandaids, another paper face mask that has strayed in there at some point, a packet of salt, a rolled length of self-adhesive bandaging suitable for temporary use, a packet of souvenir bandaids with pictures of the Swedish Royal warship Vasa on them (which makes them perfectly wonderfully hilarious souvenirs, to my mind), a meter of narrow dark blue satin ribbon because one never knows, two tiny ziplock bags suitable for holding pearls found in one's lunch or dinner (yes, this happens enough that I now carry tiny bags just in case), a few extra business cards, a tiny packet of antacid, floss and picks, a tiny gauze drawstring pouch, a tiny safety tweezers and a superslim folding nail clippers given to me by a deceased friend who delighted in finding tiny useful gadgets and bestowing them on me and my sweetie Mike, a charging cord and plug for my phone, a stray white shoelace, a folded gold paper crown from a Christmas cracker (most recently used when singing King George at a Hamiltunes singalong, where we shared it among the three of us who split the King's part), and an 18mm Hastings triplet loupe because it's quite useful. Also a very tattered copy of my sales and use tax paperwork for the business, which I ought to laminate.

The largest pouch is at the back, is large enough to hold a sizeable hardcover book, and usually holds whatever I need to drag around that day, along with a mophie battery, a collapsible shopping bag, a list of my prescriptions, a ziplock containing the charging cords for the mophie and the kindle fire, sometimes the kindle fire if I feel like dragging it around that day, and a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Thank you for asking. Now my purse is tidy.

[jenett]

This is fascinating! (Having seen you withdraw things from it, over time, it clearly had Mysteries!)

Also, I now feel like more band-aids should be souvenir styles.

[maellenkleth]

Ah, purses as mobile stashes.

I used to carry a multi-bladed screwdriver in my purse, but ever since the Endless War ramped-up (in 2001...) it's not been possible to travel freely with tools in one's daily bag. However a dime coin will turn a remarkable variety of screws, if need be.

The purse contains endless multitudes. It is wrought from heavy brown bison leather (thus sayeth the Duluth Pack Company, and who I am to dare question that in absence of zoological knowledge?) and has a variety of handy pockets in its front, which are just the right size to hold pens and pencils.

Let's look:
-- sterling-silver Celtic knotwork pen from Scotland (a gift from my dear friend Yseult),
-- an elderly 1930's-era Autopoint mechanical pencil with red lead (gilt stamped 'Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd. / producers of celebrated the Comox, Wellington, and Mercoal coals), also a gift,
-- two Sakura Pigma drawing-pens (red and black respectively),
-- a small metal diary-pen that came from a hotel in Urumqi,
-- an 8H pencil, made by the General Pencil Company (bought at Artists' and Craftsmen's Supply, in Central Square of Cambridge),
-- a magnifying mirror, which maybe came from China,
-- a tube of lip balm picked-up as swag at a mining convention in Vancouver,
-- a 15-cm metric ruler, made of clear plastic (useful for interpreting paper prints of geophysical records),
-- asssorted coins, mostly one-dollar aureate 'loonies',
-- house-keys for our house, our own office, the administration-block in the sharashka, our room in the sharashka accomodation-block, and my sister's house,
-- a master gate-key for the industrial forestry-roads of our island,
-- a master key to the personnel-gates of all the mines in the group (because being locked in a coal mine is an unpleasant thought),
-- a tube of dark red lipstick, rather seldom-used,
-- a packet of wax-dipped matches, supposedly-proof against rain,
-- my Filofax book,
-- two charging cables for the elderly iPhone, and the phone itself,
-- a very small Sony digital camera with a spare battery and a data-transfer cable,
-- a pencil sharpener,
-- a couple of tampons in a little flowery-printed bag,
-- a small bar of soap from the Fairmont Empress hotel in Victoria,
-- a compass (classic Brunton type, with clinometer),
-- a small silken billfold from Sapporo, with Canadian, American, Chinese, Russian, and British money (mostly small bills), and a trillion-dollar bill from Zimbabwe (a gift from our friend Cow),
-- credit-union 'banking' card,
-- passport and original marriage certificate,
-- 'loyal imperial subject' biometric pass-card,
-- driving licence (from Northern Cascadia),
-- Chinese danwei (work-unit) card,
-- a small pictorial card from Petrocraft Industries, showing the named and measured standard sizes of sand grains (which is handy for structured description of diamond-drill core samples),
-- a packet of dry shampoo, which is meant to be mixed-up in a drinking-cup, and works surprisingly-well,
-- a packet of yummy cinnamon candies from Market Basket in Fitchburg (Massachusetts), and
-- a folding wooden hair-brush which I bought in London in 1977 and which still has most of its bristles.

No room in there for a brick, but it weighs like it does contain a brick. Darling Spouse gave me the purse as a gift, after she had gone to visit friends in Duluth (brave woman, she went there in mid-winter).