What's in a Bag, You Ask? (The Realm of the Highly Disorganized)

The problem with blogging is having a million interesting things to blog about in one day and not having enough time to blog about everything. Blogging only has to come second to a paying job. Blog has become a super word, serving millions of people who love to write what they think as I do.

I find it a bit too self-involved to be writing about what is in my bag but it’s the nth year that people have been bugging me with the “what’s in your bag?” question, which purportedly began when I was teaching in the university. I lugged around a bag that had my entire life in it. I think I may have once written in my weekly column a long time ago that I had a problem packing an overnight bag because I’d end up bringing too many of everything--too many shoes, too many undergarments, too many, shirts—and yes, for an overnight stint.

The truth is, it is the same for my everyday bag.

My husband and I were taking a supposedly leisurely walk yesterday, my bag on his shoulder, when he turned to me and said, “Are you sure you don’t have rocks in your bag?” We stopped, laughed hard and long, and then I realized it was the third time he asked me the same question. It was then, when it dawned on me (and on our 7^th anniversary) that he might really have wanted to know what’s in my trunk-weighing bag. So I let him in on something that I thought he already knew (oh well, it’s been seven years, right?). I told him I only bring the essentials –the life-and-death stuff, you know. “U-huh,” was the quick answer. “Planner, the make up set you bought me, notebooks, and well, my lunch was in there this morning,” I attempted to sound pleading. “Then why is this soooo heavy?” Karim asked, and still in wonderment.

People I work with also notice my bag: how big it is, how heavy it looks. Probably the only person who understands this discombobulating backbreaking disorder is our publisher who carries three bags, in different sizes and all of them loaded.

“What’s in you bag?!”

I have read articles of writers prying into celebrities’ bags and trying to know their can’t-live-without items. In my case, I don’t have a claim to fame but I manage to puzzle a lot of people. My bag will also be a disappointment to thieves since I don’t have anything in it that will bring them fortune. That mascara which sells for $14 million sold at H. Couture Beauty? No, this lass doesn’t have it. It’s drilling in there but I’ll finally let those who’ve been asking to get in and see the rest of me.

The Big C Planner. It resembles a small, messy board (only with a lot of pages) with schedules for photo shoots and interviews, some birthdays and who to contact for what. (Example: Via, the mighty housekeeper, for kwek-kwek)
Strunk and White. What needy mortal does not have this in his or her bag?
Notebook # 1. Doodles—for times when I want to nap at work but can’t.
Notebook # 2 Drawings—for when I get the urge.
An almost 12” three-fold black Kenneth Cole wallet. For the small things that will get lost in my bag.
Book. I bring around my current read. Again, just in case I’d have the time between coffee and bugging Gerese Axalan or Ms. Glenda Lo (for Lopez).
A pack of tissues. Self-explanatory.
A big phone. I don’t like small phones and texting. I’ve heard this is considered the unbecoming of a Filipino.
A make up kit. The shy, queasy newcomer in my bag.
An orange bag of “personal stuff”. Cole made me promise to never ever show this to the boys in my office-- “because it is shameful mommy!”
Orange. The name by which my orange umbrella is known for to friends and family.
Olive green pencil case. Handsewn by my Korean friend’s mother.
Emergency school supplies kit. Miniature pastes, glue, scissors, rulers, scotch tape, erasers, paper clips, post it, and everything your teacher told you to bring.
Mini medicine kit. For emergencies, whatelse.
Jell pens. Simply because they’re fun company.
Lunch box. If I were to carry the pretty lunch bag that my sister sent me, I might end up calling to the gods for help for my “heavy load”.
Supremacie by L’bel. For the dry moments of my skin.
A bottle of Para Mi Bebe or Nenuco or Denenes or UCB or CK or Gotas de Oro or Johnson’s Baby Cologne. My happy scents since first grade. I appreciate people who don’t smell like a basket of fruits. Every girl on the street; in the bus, jeep, MRT, supermarket, public toilets smells like this and it’s maddening already. It rained fruit scents somewhere and we didn’t know about it.
Keys. Entrance to Cole's kingdom.
A folder. Find all sorts of paper there.
Business cards organizer. Don't we all have this?
My business card holder. Self-explanatory.

I meant it when I said I just have ‘the essentials’ in my bag. Those tiny bags that women carry around amaze me and makes me wonder what they have in there.Who wants to let me in on their little secret?