Ivylad often laughs at me when I leave for work in the morning because I carry so much stuff it looks like I’m moving out.
Let’s see, when I leave for work I have:
Purse
Keys
Cell Phone
Lunch in a tote bag
Big water jug (holds half a gallon of ice water and keeps it cold all day)
Gym bag
Office clothes if they won’t fit in the gym bag
Thermos of coffee to drink after my workout
Sometimes my son helps me carry stuff out, but I find I have forgotten stuff if I don’t have it all in my hands…you know, Ivyboy has my lunch, but he doesn’t have my cell phone, and I don’t realize it until I’ve gotten to work
keys, wallet-on-a-string (which contains cash, DL, CCs, cell phone, and until it died my PDA), sometimes a box of tissues, microwaveable soups, other non-perishables; on Thursdays, my chorus stuff.
Bike, helmet and bike lights, plus a back pack with a novel, my ipod, and anywhere from ten to twenty CDs to listen to throughout the day. Choosing the CDs is my favourite part of my getting-ready-for-work ritual in the morning (or evening, when I’m working night shifts).
Now, when we finally get a decent stereo with a jack where I can plug in my ipod, I will be in heaven. Hopefully not literally.
PowerBook
~ 4 FireWire cables
DVI-to-VGA adapter
digital camera
camera-to-USB cable
extension cord
spare power cord for PowerBook
spare Cat-5 ethernet cable
spare stereo RCA audio cables
optical mouse
headphones
2-3 blank CD-R disks
1 blank DVD-R disk
canopus analog-to-digital video converter
triple RCA video & stereo audio cable set
powerbrick for canopus card
villagetronic card for 3rd monitor support
FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 converter
external 100 GB FireWire drive
telephone butt-splice connector
telephone Y adapter
retractable phone cord
two spare digital camera batteries
spare eyeglasses
reading glasses (clip-ons)
collapsible umbrella
current book to read
two nasal sprays for allergies
All that goes into: Targus backback-style computer bag
In pockets etc:
pocketwatch
amazing mess of keys in key wallet
regular wallet w/cred cards, driver’s license etc
tiny bottle opener
Two days a week the Targus bag subsumes a gym bag within itself:
swim suit that doubles as gym shorts
combo lock
soap
change of sox, shirt & undies
dirty clothes bag
Lessee, usually all I have with me is my backpack, but that contains at any given moment:
SOG tool
Altoids (Spearmint, Ginger, and Wintergreen flavors)
Carmex
Package of Swedish Fish
Spool of light wire
Bus/train schedules
Binoculars
Packet of salt and pepper
Ibuprofin
Napkins
Pens, ballpoint, 2 or so
Passport
Bungee cord
Y-tool (8, 9, 10mm)
Electrical tape
Satanic rubber duck
Misc packets of ketchup, soy sauce, hot sauce
Chopsticks
Tape measures (1 folding, one retractable)
zipties
iPod
Laptop
Lunch
Now, if you’ll pardon me, I must re-pack everything.
Most days I just take my backpack, which contains:[ul][li]my purse (which, in turn, holds my PDA and cell phone)[/li][li]a small umbrella[/li][li]my iPod[/li][li]my badge[/li][li]headphones and portable speakers[/li][li]a hairbrush[/li][li]Tylenol and Immodium[/li][li]miscellaneous pens and pencils[/ul][/li]On Tuesday mornings the backpack also contains whatever I’ll need for my class that night (I leave right from the office). This is also the day of the week that I’m most likely to take a jacket or coat to work, for wearing on campus after the sun has gone down.
On Monday mornings I also take a tote bag that contains my laptop (from work; I bring it home with me on weekends) and its assorted cords, cables, and accessories.
Keys
Wallet
Three pens [in my right hip pocket]
Chapstick [in left hip pocket]
Cloth to clean my eyeglasses [ditto]
Notepad
Assorted papers, if I took any home the previous day or collected them at a meeting the night before
Bottled Water
Apple
Banana [sometimes]
Mints [occasionally]
Since I have to go through a security gate and have bags x-rayed (just like at the airport), I keep stuff I’ll need regularly in my office–makeup, extra shoes–and only carry the bare mininum into the office every day:
my security badge (I can’t get into the building without it).
car/house keys.
wallet.
The only time I’ll carry a bag is when I’m bringing a packed lunch.
Man…you people travel heavy! When I worked in an office, I carried my purse, which contained the same stuff it contained every time I left the house. No extra stuff at all.
Now that I work at home, I got all my stuff right here!
My backpack, containing assorted school supplies, my laptop, and a thing that holds some folders and a notepad. (According to staples.com, apparently it’s called a “padfolio.”) I usually cram my purse in there. And my bus pass in a small wallet on a retractable cord.
A tote bag with my knitting, so I can work on it on the bus.
A tote bag with lunch, and any other random stuff I need to take in, like workout clothes, or a new bottle of hand lotion. ([Obscure West Wing Allusion]I decorate my desk with hand lotion.[/OWWA])
