Life Changes: Barbara Walters' Purse
This week on the View they did a small segment on women's purses. I really wished they would have had all of the women, Meredith, Star, Joy and Elisabeth, dump their purses on the table. But Barbara Walters emptied her purse on air and now I understand why she is the pentultimate news maven and role model for so many others. I find her fascinating on the View because she is so open about everything and has this great history of broadcasting and the most fabulous stories.
Inside BW's purse was a Blackberry, something I haven't tried because I think taking the time to enter everything would eat up my days. I wonder if she does it herself. Probably, she seems like a disciplined gal. But she also had a narrow datebook, "I case I don't have the Blackberry," she said. I immediately saw an opening to ask myself, Can Barbara Walters misplace things like the rest of us unorganized sloths? Please God, say it's true. I want to feel universally human and normal in my own idiosyncrises.
She had a thick address book. I need to do that, put together a new address book, but my BIL and SIL keep moving. The S's spill into the R's now. A few years ago, I bought one of those erasable address books but can't figure out where I put it. (This tells you something about my organizational skills. I'm certain it's in a drawer in one of my four desks on two different floors and in two buildings, probably where I shoved the Christmas cards from 2003 I set aside to look up the right addresses and zipcodes. )
BW is known for her letter and note writing. There is a lovingly old fashioned kind of courtesy to writing notes and letters and thank yous. I love that. For so many years I answered every fan letter with a handwritten note. I would sit outside on the patio on Sundays and write them all. Somehow the mail became overwhelming after I lost Chris and along the way I have stopped due to time pressures and poor organization. I must go back, I think. It feels good to write a note. I love the feel of ink against paper. (One of the many reasons I write my books longhand.)
Back to Barbara Walters' purse... There was a package of Kleenix, a few more items, all very practical and minimal. Then here comes the clincher. She had those great little colored mesh zippered bags, the kind for lipstick or bobby pins and hair elastics, etc. She put her money in one. It was red or coral-colored, and she had another lilac one that held her credit cards. No wallet. She said she got the idea from Hillary Clinton, who used them to separate items in her handbag so she could easily find everything. The woman should be President for that tidbit alone.
Why could I not have thought of that? I'm forever rummaging through my purse to find what has sunk into some unreachable place in the bottom of my bag. I know I could use one for receipts. I use a Ziplock bag when I travel, but I like the idea of color co-ordinated pouches rather than plastic kitchen bags. Since most of my purses are black or lined in black, the color packets would be easy to find.
Digression (I *am* a storyteller):
I was at the airport recently on my way to speak in Denver. At the gate I looked in my big black purse (about 18 by 13 inch drawstring) and my cell phone wasn't in the bag. This wonderful huge purse has one of those nifty cell holder compartments, but I realized I must have left the phone in the cupholder in my car, parked in a lot off of the airport.
Now understand I almost never use my cell except when I travel. Drives my friends nuts that I don't carry it everywhere. It's always in my car, so no one can reach me unless I'm driving and I never remember to take it inside with me to stores or anywhere. I just leave it in the car. Sad, huh?
When I got to the Denver hotel, I called my daughter to let her know where I was, told her I had stupidly left my cell phone in Washington. After I left that message I decided to check my cell phone messages and used the hotel phone to call my cell voicemail. Well, coming from the corner of the hotel room, I hear the can-can music from the Moulin Rouge. Yes. My cell phone was in that black hole of a purse. Now what good is a cell phone compartment if the phone falls out?
Back to BW's purse versus JB's purse.
Why do I carry such a huge bag? It all started with motherhood. I carried a diaper bag for about a month, then forced by my Californian's need for style, I dumped the diaper bag and went to a huge purse. Powder blue and yellow dancing ducks and elephants on a shiny plastic diaper bag was just too much cuteness for me.
Mothers understand the need for a huge purse to fill with Fun Fruits, juice boxes, crackers, Baby Tylenol, whole 250 count boxes of Kleenix, baby wipes, which I still carry in my car. My husband would put his Daytimer and sunglasses in my purse. For the family, my purse had become daily luggage.
The View TV segment prompted me to dump out my purse that day. I wish I'd taken a photo of the contents. There were three different colors of napkins, wadded up Kleenix, not used, just frayed from the wreckage inside my bag. Three loose checkbook pads, all partially used. (So much for the order of check numbers.)
My lime green wallet, bulging and beginning to split at the corner. I have some ten or so market rainchecks in the wallet I keep forgetting to use. I have managed to ruin three wallets through overstuffing. If one more retailer gives me their membership card I'm going scream. (I care about giving job training to women in the world, here and especially in Africa. I don't care how many Hallmark cards I buy.)
Back inside my purse: My little digital camera. I love my camera. One hard red leather sunglass case, bandaids, ferry schedules, pink marker pen, probably $2.00 in change, a 4oz water bottle, three gold foil chocolate hearts from a Valentine luncheon, two decks of Bicycle cards, one red, one blue. (This is in case I run into ten friends and need to play Texas rummy on the ferry.)
There were probably thirty various receipts mucking up the bag: grocery, ferry, gas and bank. More pens, red, black and green. My flashdrive with my current ms, synopses. This drive needs updating because I think the final draft of THE DAYS OF SUMMER is still on it, too. One small ring notebook for making brilliant ideas, book notes or capturing lines of dialogue that pop into my head. One bottle of Excedrin & one bottle of Motrin, both with the caps lost and a good 50 plus white and orange pills lining the bottom of my purse.
Explain something to me. Why will a childproof cap refuse to open when you have a headache? You can line up the Vee's, you can press down, you can squeeze and you can stomp on it, and it will not open. Children, you *are* safe. I've been known to stand in the kitchen and take a meat tenderizing mallet to one small plastic bottle cap just to get it off.
Yet when you put one of those same kind of bottles in your purse, it opens constantly. Now, whenever I my knee hurts or I have a headache, I don't even bother to look for the pills bottle. I stick my hand to the bottom and scour my pursebed. Children, stay out of my purse!
In one zippered pocket were two pairs of Costco reading glasses, seven pens, half a roll of butterscotch Life Savers, Listerine mints, one Lancome lip gloss, one L Mercier lip pencil, one Chanel lipstick pencil, one Chanel Tornado lipstick and Chapstick. (I use all of the lip products to get the right lip color.)
Toward the corner was the squashed but still wrapped oatmeal raisin breakfast bar from the plane three weeks ago. A mail box key, Altoids, open and spilled all over the bottom of the purse so it smells like cinnamon. I'll bet Altoids never thought they were making purse freshener.
My business cards all nice and tidy in a little drawstring bag my friend gave me when she made the cards. Does she know me or what?
There was a dental app't card, a doctor's receipt, and oil change receipt, a movie stub, half a bag of Good 'n Plenty and an old Red Vine. I am horrified. Barbara Walters would never have an old Red Vine in her handbag.
I'm now searching for small, mesh, Hillary Clinton zippered bags in different colors. Please note in this entire blog list of 'Jill's purse contents,' there was not one organizer, Daytimer, Palm Pilot or calendar. That speaks volumes about my purse, my car, my desk drawers, & my life.
So I want to make my life like Barbara Walters' purse. I vow today I will start with my own handbag.
Jill Barnett, Writer and Disorganized Nightmare
Inside BW's purse was a Blackberry, something I haven't tried because I think taking the time to enter everything would eat up my days. I wonder if she does it herself. Probably, she seems like a disciplined gal. But she also had a narrow datebook, "I case I don't have the Blackberry," she said. I immediately saw an opening to ask myself, Can Barbara Walters misplace things like the rest of us unorganized sloths? Please God, say it's true. I want to feel universally human and normal in my own idiosyncrises.
She had a thick address book. I need to do that, put together a new address book, but my BIL and SIL keep moving. The S's spill into the R's now. A few years ago, I bought one of those erasable address books but can't figure out where I put it. (This tells you something about my organizational skills. I'm certain it's in a drawer in one of my four desks on two different floors and in two buildings, probably where I shoved the Christmas cards from 2003 I set aside to look up the right addresses and zipcodes. )
BW is known for her letter and note writing. There is a lovingly old fashioned kind of courtesy to writing notes and letters and thank yous. I love that. For so many years I answered every fan letter with a handwritten note. I would sit outside on the patio on Sundays and write them all. Somehow the mail became overwhelming after I lost Chris and along the way I have stopped due to time pressures and poor organization. I must go back, I think. It feels good to write a note. I love the feel of ink against paper. (One of the many reasons I write my books longhand.)
Back to Barbara Walters' purse... There was a package of Kleenix, a few more items, all very practical and minimal. Then here comes the clincher. She had those great little colored mesh zippered bags, the kind for lipstick or bobby pins and hair elastics, etc. She put her money in one. It was red or coral-colored, and she had another lilac one that held her credit cards. No wallet. She said she got the idea from Hillary Clinton, who used them to separate items in her handbag so she could easily find everything. The woman should be President for that tidbit alone.
Why could I not have thought of that? I'm forever rummaging through my purse to find what has sunk into some unreachable place in the bottom of my bag. I know I could use one for receipts. I use a Ziplock bag when I travel, but I like the idea of color co-ordinated pouches rather than plastic kitchen bags. Since most of my purses are black or lined in black, the color packets would be easy to find.
Digression (I *am* a storyteller):
I was at the airport recently on my way to speak in Denver. At the gate I looked in my big black purse (about 18 by 13 inch drawstring) and my cell phone wasn't in the bag. This wonderful huge purse has one of those nifty cell holder compartments, but I realized I must have left the phone in the cupholder in my car, parked in a lot off of the airport.
Now understand I almost never use my cell except when I travel. Drives my friends nuts that I don't carry it everywhere. It's always in my car, so no one can reach me unless I'm driving and I never remember to take it inside with me to stores or anywhere. I just leave it in the car. Sad, huh?
When I got to the Denver hotel, I called my daughter to let her know where I was, told her I had stupidly left my cell phone in Washington. After I left that message I decided to check my cell phone messages and used the hotel phone to call my cell voicemail. Well, coming from the corner of the hotel room, I hear the can-can music from the Moulin Rouge. Yes. My cell phone was in that black hole of a purse. Now what good is a cell phone compartment if the phone falls out?
Back to BW's purse versus JB's purse.
Why do I carry such a huge bag? It all started with motherhood. I carried a diaper bag for about a month, then forced by my Californian's need for style, I dumped the diaper bag and went to a huge purse. Powder blue and yellow dancing ducks and elephants on a shiny plastic diaper bag was just too much cuteness for me.
Mothers understand the need for a huge purse to fill with Fun Fruits, juice boxes, crackers, Baby Tylenol, whole 250 count boxes of Kleenix, baby wipes, which I still carry in my car. My husband would put his Daytimer and sunglasses in my purse. For the family, my purse had become daily luggage.
The View TV segment prompted me to dump out my purse that day. I wish I'd taken a photo of the contents. There were three different colors of napkins, wadded up Kleenix, not used, just frayed from the wreckage inside my bag. Three loose checkbook pads, all partially used. (So much for the order of check numbers.)
My lime green wallet, bulging and beginning to split at the corner. I have some ten or so market rainchecks in the wallet I keep forgetting to use. I have managed to ruin three wallets through overstuffing. If one more retailer gives me their membership card I'm going scream. (I care about giving job training to women in the world, here and especially in Africa. I don't care how many Hallmark cards I buy.)
Back inside my purse: My little digital camera. I love my camera. One hard red leather sunglass case, bandaids, ferry schedules, pink marker pen, probably $2.00 in change, a 4oz water bottle, three gold foil chocolate hearts from a Valentine luncheon, two decks of Bicycle cards, one red, one blue. (This is in case I run into ten friends and need to play Texas rummy on the ferry.)
There were probably thirty various receipts mucking up the bag: grocery, ferry, gas and bank. More pens, red, black and green. My flashdrive with my current ms, synopses. This drive needs updating because I think the final draft of THE DAYS OF SUMMER is still on it, too. One small ring notebook for making brilliant ideas, book notes or capturing lines of dialogue that pop into my head. One bottle of Excedrin & one bottle of Motrin, both with the caps lost and a good 50 plus white and orange pills lining the bottom of my purse.
Explain something to me. Why will a childproof cap refuse to open when you have a headache? You can line up the Vee's, you can press down, you can squeeze and you can stomp on it, and it will not open. Children, you *are* safe. I've been known to stand in the kitchen and take a meat tenderizing mallet to one small plastic bottle cap just to get it off.
Yet when you put one of those same kind of bottles in your purse, it opens constantly. Now, whenever I my knee hurts or I have a headache, I don't even bother to look for the pills bottle. I stick my hand to the bottom and scour my pursebed. Children, stay out of my purse!
In one zippered pocket were two pairs of Costco reading glasses, seven pens, half a roll of butterscotch Life Savers, Listerine mints, one Lancome lip gloss, one L Mercier lip pencil, one Chanel lipstick pencil, one Chanel Tornado lipstick and Chapstick. (I use all of the lip products to get the right lip color.)
Toward the corner was the squashed but still wrapped oatmeal raisin breakfast bar from the plane three weeks ago. A mail box key, Altoids, open and spilled all over the bottom of the purse so it smells like cinnamon. I'll bet Altoids never thought they were making purse freshener.
My business cards all nice and tidy in a little drawstring bag my friend gave me when she made the cards. Does she know me or what?
There was a dental app't card, a doctor's receipt, and oil change receipt, a movie stub, half a bag of Good 'n Plenty and an old Red Vine. I am horrified. Barbara Walters would never have an old Red Vine in her handbag.
I'm now searching for small, mesh, Hillary Clinton zippered bags in different colors. Please note in this entire blog list of 'Jill's purse contents,' there was not one organizer, Daytimer, Palm Pilot or calendar. That speaks volumes about my purse, my car, my desk drawers, & my life.
So I want to make my life like Barbara Walters' purse. I vow today I will start with my own handbag.
Jill Barnett, Writer and Disorganized Nightmare
posted by Jill Barnett at 9:08 AM
7 Comments:
Your purse experience sounds like my sister. She constantly complaining that she can't find anything in her purse either. She hates me for being so organized. I have 6 different purses but to keep them clutter free each has a pen, notepad, tissue pack, hair tie, tampon, chapstick & bandaid in them. Then all I have to do is switch my wallet, sunglasses & PB book to whichever purse I choose to use on that day. It really works for me.
Oh, see, if I change my purse, I have to change my wallet, too. :) I'm obsessive that way.
I found those mesh zippered pouches once. I'll look and post if I find them again. I like them. I am an organization queen - when it comes to other people. My own stuff, not so much. My purse and my closet are about the only organized items I have. Well, and my PDA and daytimer. I have to keep those organized or I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next.
I found it! This is where I get my little zip pouches. They have lots of colors, styles and sizes.
www.walkerbags.com
Your purse sounds a lot like my mother in-law’s purse. She cleaned it out last year and found a 14 year old lottery ticket and some S&H green stamps. There were some English coins in that purse too. Strange, since she hadn’t lived in England for almost 50 years.
Note: I always had to have my kid open those child proof caps for me.
Sometimes I think there is a black hole in my purse. I keep looking for things and then I find them in the tiny corner of the bag. I tried switching to a smaller purse but then I would be out and about and find out I didn't put something in my bag that I need. Grrr. So I keep my large bag, clean it out once in a great while cause you never know if you might need one tic tac left in the container. A raincheck that I might use, then a few weeks later when cleaning I find out it's expired. LOL I buy purses with lots of inside pockets for cell phones etc. Do the items get in those pockets usually not.
I travel too lightly to carry a purse. I put everything in my bra. Yep, my bra. Much to the dismay of the young teenage boy at the SaveOn Food store when I whipped my debit card out of my bra and handed it to him. He put his hands up like I just drew a weapon on him for petes sake. I said "um. its fine, my bra is clean". Maybe its time to buy a purse?
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