what’s in my bag

We were sitting in a van with not especially functional air conditioning in an especially hot part of the planet talking about not much of anything. The landscape blurred. The air conditioning labored.

We got to joking about the weird things we carry. My bag and its collection of odd ball contents had already become a running joke among us. Hungry? I got you. Bleeding? Well, I can fix that, too. At least temporarily.

I promised my friends I’d make a list in the spirit of Glamour’s recurring feature. It pretty much goes without saying that Glamour’s bags are way more, well, glamourous than mine. But I’m pretty sure I have more snacks — and snacks always win.

So here goes!

Sunscreen. The hippy kind that you can eat if you want, but I probably wouldn’t, because why would I eat sunscreen when I have perfectly good snacks. Also, it comes in tubes. And it’s waterproof. Waterproof sunscreen, in a tube, that I’m not eating.

A camera battery. One of the big monster ones that go in my Nikon. I probably have four of them and there’s generally one rattling around the bottom of whatever bag I’m carrying — whether or not I’m actually carrying a camera. No camera? No problem. I got a battery! I’m ready!

Hippy tampons. Hippy sunscreen, hippy tampons. It just makes sense.

LUNA bars. So many Luna bars. That was a four-Luna-bar day. Sometimes I worry that I might turn into one. The chocolate coconut ones rule the world — and I totally blame Catharine Pendrel for telling me about them. See! Sponsorship works! I eat way too many Luna bars now.

Peanut M&M’s. Sharing size, though I don’t always share. Snacks are very important to me.

Adhesive tape. Bandaids are nice, but kind of small. Also, they don’t always stick. Tape. Tape always works. I can fix anything with tape. I’ve been considering switching to duct tape actually, but that might be going a little too far.

Loose change. Like loose llamas. But in my bag. And not llamas.

A bikini. There’s a lot of water in the world and a girl’s gotta be prepared for anything. You just never know.

Wipes. Life is messy. You don’t have to be. Also, I spill things.

Contact lenses. Never in pairs, because that would make sense.

Hair ties, mostly broken.

Water bottle. Buying water is stupid.

Lens wipes. Not for human use, though maybe they’d work?

Phone charger cords, multiple. Why carry one, when you can carry two? I guess?

Moleskin notebook. For writing things.

Mechanical pencil. Also for writing things. I like the blue ones. Pens are stupid and get all over my fingers.

iPod shuffles, multiple. I like the blue ones.

Magazine I write for.

Magazine I want to write for.

Random pin from a brand event two years ago.

Random Receipts from a press trip two years ago.

Empty carmex cannister.

More snacks. Because I’m not about to eat the sunscreen.