Purse Contents

Day 10: The Contents of My Purse

Entire contents of my purse

I chose to clean out my purse because I'm staying with Sam in a hotel outside of Chicago for his U16 soccer tournament. All I have with me is my car, my suitcase and the contents of my purse. 

I recently switched purses and I feared I would not find anything to throw away.

I was wrong.

What I kept: 

• Driver's license
• Library card
• Credit card that gives frequent flier miles
• Sunglasses
• Reading glasses
• Dramamine, ibuprofen, and albuteral
• AAA card
• Lipstick
• Kleenex
• ATM card
• Tampons
• Michigan Theater membership card
• University of Michigan employee identification card
• Smart phone
• Extra set of scooter keys
• Forever stamps.

The Trash

What was missing: 

• The $138 receipt for faculty and senior flowers for Emma's last musical, which I need if I want to get reimbursed by the parent-teacher association
• Cash. People with teenagers have no cash. Teenagers leak cash from their parents' wallets like a hole leaks air from a balloon.

What I threw away: 

• Three-year-old eyeglass prescription of Emma's
• Expired Ark membership
• Expired Costco membership
• Expired medical flexible spending card
• Expired duplicate AAA card
• Expired frequent buyer discount card for Plato's Closet, a used teen clothing store
• Frequent buyer card for cupcake bakery where Sam and I bought a birthday present three years ago and to which we have not been since
• Business card for TIAA Cref representative; feels like we will never be able to retire.

The Pending File

What I put in a holding place pending resolution: 

• The lifetime warranty form for my Stormey Kromer hat, which I filled out and will mail as soon as I get an envelope, using the forever stamp I kept
• The UM Credit Union home equity credit card, which I activated and put back in my wallet
• The scooter registration form, which belongs with the scooter now that Sam is licensed to drive it
• Bank account information for my parents, which I will be responsible for managing when my father dies. It's difficult to type the words "when my father dies." At first I chose the words, "If anything happens to my father," but that makes it sound as though he's a spy leaving for a dangerous mission on foreign soil. I replaced that with "if my father dies," but that's silly. He's not sick, but he's already several years older than his father got to be. So. When my father dies I will be responsible for finding these slips of paper, and following his instructions, and so I must put these in our metal box in the basement where we keep our passports and birth certificates, as soon as I get home.