I just had to find my passport for Non-travel Reasons. After tearing the house apart, for an hour I found it, tucked into my purse, which I haven't used in eleven months. It was a pre-COVID time capsule in there.

- Passport, for when I travelled all over the country
- Little business card holder, in case I had a good face-to-face chat with a stranger and wanted to stay in touch
- Magic for Liars bookplates in case I felt like popping into an independent bookstore in a town I was visiting

- An entire pocket packed with tampons and pads and pantiliners in case I met a total stranger in a public bathroom who was having a crisis
- Lavender-scented hand sanitizer to use if I remembered, which I almost never did, unless the person shaking my hand said "I've got a cold"

- Pens & sharpies because I used to go places other than my desk
- Two good lip balms (what a find!) because I would often be more than a fifteen-second walk from the lip balm on my bedside table
- Long-wearing lipstick that would last through a meal in a restaurant with friends

Intellectually I've known, for the past year, that I used to go places other than my house, used to anticipate interacting with people I don't live with. I used to carry a whole bag around with me specifically to manage unplanned in-person interactions.

Anyway I'm not likely to get vaccinated any time soon so the bag went back onto the top shelf of the closet where I can forget it exists for another several months.

...The lip balms come with me though. Fucking jackpot

me: wow finding this purse was a startlingly emotional experience

y'all: WHAT ARE THE LIP BALMS THOUGH

(that last one is sweet violet)