Tricks of the Trade

A friend and former co-worker once remarked on two "life tips" she was glad to have learned from me.  The first one was a rule I still hold fast and true, and that is that one should always have a bottle of bubbly chilled in the fridge and on hand for spontaneous celebrating of big or small milestones.  Let's face it.  Bubbles just make everything more festive, even on an otherwise ordinary Tuesday.

The other is a trick that I'm sure a million other girls have latched onto as well as it's probably one of the main reasons handbags were invented in the first place.  It's the necessary bag inside a necessary bag if you will, holding all of our must-haves.  I suppose one could throw all of these sorts of objects directly into their purse from the get go, but I like having it self contained.  My little pouch is small enough that it goes with me almost everywhere and seeing as it is in its' own compartment, I can easily move it from purse to over the shoulder work tote to beach bag without issue.  I call mine my state of emergency kit because I tried to fill it with anything I might need in a pinch - big or small. 

Seeing as everyone is a voyeur at heart, my own state of emergency kit's contents:

- A spare pair of contacts.
- Tampon and panty liner.
- Nail file
-  Floss (A LIFESAVER when that stupid piece of lettuce from your salad at lunch remains stuck!)
- Breathmints
- Hand Sanitizer
- Compact (mirror and pressed face powder)
- Fold-out mini hairbrush
- Rewetting drops for contacts
- Hand lotion
- Hair tie & a few bobby pins
- Tums
- Eyeliner
- Tinted lip balm (doubles for a little bit of color and chapped lips)
- Tissues
- Ibuprofen/Medicine (I use that little Altoids tin to hold any loose pills like Advil, sinus pills, etc.)
- Blush brush/blush
- Eyeshadow (to be applied with blush brush)
- Bandaids

I'm regularly updating what I need in here, but the above seem to be the usual suspects.  I love to play the game with friends where I ask them to name something they might need in an emergency and then determine if I have it in my stash or not.  I've only failed twice thus far, once when a friend asked if I had nail clippers (I countered with my nail file.) and again when a (platonic) guy friend asked if I considered a condom a necessary add item. (Which quickly devolved into a whole discussion about whose responsibility condoms were and then a further discussion of how lucky one thought they might be getting on a random night.  But that's another post entirely.)    

Anyway!  If you don't have a state of emergency kit, I vote you make one.  Seriously, this little bag has saved my hide more times than I can count.  If you do have one already, what am I missing?  What's in yours that I haven't thought about for mine?  Do tell.  We can even sip champagne while we talk about it.