People were asked to check the contents of their pockets, wallet, pocketbook, purse, knapsack, backpack, nightstand, coffee table, pants cuffs, coat closet, etc.
Here are some of the things they discovered . . .
an acorn, small sable hair paintbrush, library cards for three cities I am not currently living in, postage stamps, the key to my best friend's front door, protein bar, string cheese, six inch wooden ruler, map of Lake Ontario, $12.47, eye patch, ticket stub from a Sutton Foster concert
a beat-up folded yellow post-it note on which I wrote a quote that makes me smile: "Be yourself. Everyone else it taken."
book titled You Are Here: Personal Geographies
the key to St. James's palace, London
folding scissors, lip balm, a rubber band, paper clips, a large safety pin, miniature Hershey bars
list of books I mean to read, dried out pen, chamomile tea bag, photographs of grandchildren, vertigo medication
movie stub for The Lego Movie, cucumber-scented hand sanitizer,
pen light, coupon to that restaurant I really love but no one else likes
a poem, written on the back of a parking payment stub a month ago
wads and wads of tissues, sorted used/unused
Nintendo 3DS in case a stranger wants to play Pokemon
gym pants, rolled tight and rubber-banded, for sporadic I-must-run-now moments
a tiny ice cream taster spoon
contact information for a local potter
leather driving gloves (cost 10 cents at a church sale)
receipts from buying coal and propane
new Kinney Drugs value card, single tablet of Sudafed PE for sinus headaches, Ricola Throat Drops and Ricola Throat Drop wrappers
small plastic cat found on the street — a good luck charm
assorted and mysterious crumbs
lint & hope
photo of my wife; photo of my grandson
black pen, red pen, mechanical pencil
special cloth for cleaning eyeglasses, packet of gum, plastic toothpicks with brush on one end
a Zoltar Speaks fortune teller card -— my lucky numbers are 36, 27, 14, 07, 19, 29
admission receipt to The Mob Museum
receipt for 3 glass skulls filled with vodka — souvenirs for the kids
four bookmarks, three of them from Iceland
calculator, a bottle of whiteout, earphones for my Nook
half of a nail file — the dog ate the other half
a button that says "Vegan for the People/ for the Planet/ for the Animals"
black bandana with white paisley design, to use as emergency handkerchief
lint removal roller, for cat hair
receipt from Hickey's Music Center for a cable
spare elastic shockmount bands for Rode NT1-A microphone
1/8" to 1/4" adapter for stereo audio jack
small rose quartz to keep the heart balanced
water jar
feminine hygiene products because I just never know anymore about the timing of things
emergency inhaler, not needed for 18 years
a drawing on a post-it note of a horse, made for me by my husband 6 years ago
amber and sandalwood oil
drawing pens and small sketchbook
free passes to the indoor trampoline place
Fisherman's Friend cough lozenges
Pez dispenser in the shape of Superman
a pin that says "Imagine Peace"
a list of my allergies and emergency numbers
a few pages pulled out of an Ellen DeGeneres paperback that are so funny that I just re-read them every few years
no less than 25 pens and pencils
my huge schedule book that I hand make because who pays $24 for a blank book with dates in it — that I can make myself
a peanut butter sandwich
a smiley face sticker
a "fortune" from lunch at a Chinese restaurant
car wash tickets
Bahamas ASPCA membership card
ticket stub for the movie American Hustle
bank deposit slip, health insurance card and prescription card, discount cards, reward cards, business cards, appointment cards, car license and registration cards
the earrings I meant to put on when I was walking out the door
old food stamp, from when they were still made from paper
coral colored lipstick that isn't mine
an egg-shaped piece of Tiger's eye, a large piece of hematite, two pieces of fluorite
tarot cards
a small clutch-sized purse that holds earplugs, a phone charger, two kinds of Tic Tacs, Handiwipes, two packets of raspberry flavored EmergenC, and assorted bits of paper
old, very old, could-hurt-you-if-I-hit-you-with-them energy bars: two of them, both half eaten
just the envelopes of letters I've read
sunglasses, two plastic spoons, napkins, Advil large size full bottle
a totally empty purse
cell phone
two Costa Rica tour books — 600 pages,and 336 pages
one unneeded rain jacket, two unneeded long sleeve shirts that don't fit in my suitcase, one sun protection shirt that I need everyday
one tiny tube of toothpaste, one tube of arnica cream
one old bus ticket to San Jose from Turrialba, one bus schedule brochure, an extra pair of glasses, camera, baseball cap, one granola bar
street maps of San Jose and Cartago, five tourist maps, two Spanish dictionaries
"worry stone" from Arizona
folding money (about $25)
receipts from the Post Office, Staples, Wegmans, and Home Depot
a half dollar money clip holding two tens, three fives, and six ones
my favorite Fisher Space Pen that can write upside down or when you're in outer space and there's no gravity
my father's well-used, mother-of-pearl, two blade, small pocket knife
a toothpick holder I've carried around for thirty years
one New York Times crossword puzzle, always carefully folded up next to a neatly folded bandana in my back pocket
chunks of rock salt in my pants cuffs from the giant dump truck that sped by me as it spewed salt onto the icy Home Depot parking lot
a book of essays by Anne Fadiman, titled Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
chocolate chip Clif Bar
a button that fell off something but I can't figure out what it was
neon yellow highlighter, pencil shavings, some half-finished jewelry, a gross & lonely throat lozenge
three peanuts, a red kidney bean, a half-eaten caramel, four squash seeds, popcorn, four dried leaves, six very small pebbles, three twigs, a feather
a cheddar cheese penguin cracker
lots of what looked at first like chocolate sprinkles but on closer observation was clearly mouse poop
a buckeye, because I'm from the Buckeye State
a neatly pressed white handkerchief, seven cents, one green comb, three bobby pins,
a set of not-often-used keys with church key, because I just never know when I’ll need one, or for what
metallic gold eyeglass case holding two ballpoint pens, my “25 years at Cornell” gold-tone pen, and a neatly pressed blue handkerchief
a pathetically insubstantial amount of folding cash
multiple business cards for my multiple business lives: real estate agent; obituarist; writer on food, wine, farms, people; auctioneer
rumpled red linen handkerchief with hand-embroidered red edging, which really should go into the laundry
bank passbook, Swiss Army knife, pistol permit
visitor's sticker to the National Gallery in Ottawa, the paper from a tea bag, foreign candy, two blank notecards
linoleum block from art class, music pass for lessons, shrinky dink paper from art class, headband for gym class, rubber bracelet from health class, audition paper for the play from last fall
notebooks for Spanish class, science class, English class; orange binder for math class; big binder with folders for all classes, in order of those classes; The Great Gatsby in the main pocket of my schoolbag
3 triple A batteries
bag of dried up mangoes
eye drops
rolls of Mentos candies
credit cards that I never activated, business cards from people I don’t remember, check books from banks I no longer have accounts with, keys that don’t fit any locks that I can find
guitar picks
a pot holder made by Alison Lurie
to-do list from January
empty bread bag, empty Dunkin' Donuts bag, paper towel, plastic knife, orange peel to compost
poetry book by Melissa Tuckey and a book by Pema Chodron
2 pairs of white socks
"10 Things" list from Zee
results of blood work test
4 receipts from the public library
partial list of song titles for future radio show
traveler's amulet
small, smooth amethyst
silver dollar
contact lens case, nail clippers, coconut banana granola bar
rolling papers (because you never know)
one tiny notebook with a single haiku written in it
four hair bands for keeping hair out of my face
three empty gum wrappers because I chewed some gum and didn't know where else to put the wrappers
a pair of soft forceps for picking up insects at work
one Sacagawea dollar coin I got in December in Ecuador, where they are pleasingly common
an article titled "Slightly Depressed Women Live Longer"
a little owl
a sea shell
swatches of fabric and a piece of yarn
band aids, Chapstick, dental floss, denture cream, cortisone cream
my very favorite small, bright yellow Moleskine notebook with its elastic strap to keep the ideas from spilling out — annotated with lists, drawings, phone numbers and indecipherable scrawls — there is a small back pocket that holds "mad money"
lip gloss, rose pink, pearly
a small, flat, red metal credit card case, embossed with "The Metropolitan Museum of Art" — a repurposed address book, fastened with a wooden hors d'oeuvre pick ever since I lost the tiny silver pen
one rust and brown batik mini purse, holding my precious library card, the not-so-precious but useful AAA membership card, Ithaca Bakery's bread card, and quarters for parking meters
one indigo blue gel pen, one baby blue stylus, one Caribbean blue metal tube-case for reading glasses, all in a row
one check book, bedraggled, it's never had a cover
just in case: Lactaid, gas-relief tablets, Pepto Bismol tablets
3 pencils and an eraser, tape measure, hearing aid batteries
butane lighter, for un-freezing locks
some old phone numbers written on paper
3 different types of teacher/tutor I.D., each with its own strap
too much plastic
reminder about things I remember, not those I forget
coffee shop card: buy 9, get 1 free
crochet hook, 2 lightweight tote bags that folds into themselves, a 2013 calendar I can't throw out yet
a small round mirror so I can check to see if I have food stuck between my teeth
one black beret and one purple beret, because as my mood changes my color choices also change
good luck charm given to me by a good friend — special beads knotted onto a piece of thread
a ring that's too loose for my finger now but I want to have it with me in case it suddenly fits
latest issue of Shambala Sun magazine
just air
Thank you to all the wonderful people who contributed to this list:
Alan Heath
Alice Damp
Amy E. Bartell
Antonia Matthew
Barbara Force
Cady Fontana
Carol K. Kammen
Chaya Spector
Chris Fontana
Diana Kreutzer
Dianne Elaine Ferriss
Edna S. Brown
Gabrielle Vehar
JP
Jackie Andrews
Janet Klock
Joyce Frank
Judy Cogan
June Wolfman
Kathleen Morrow
Kay Bradford
Laura LaRosa
Linda Keeler
Lynn Johnson
Martha Blue Waters
Melissa Hamilton
Mira Vanek-Johnson
Nancy Lee Koschmann
Patty Little
Peggy Adams
Peggy Haine
Phoebe Shalloway
Prachi Ruina
Randy Ehrenberg
Ray Edwin
Richie Holtz
Rob Sullivan
Roxanne VanWormer
Sara Robbins
Saskya van Nouhuys
Sharon K. Yntema
Shirley Elliott
Sue Norvell
Sue Perlgut
Valorie Rockney
Xin Li
Zee Zahava
