Car troubles

I'd like to welcome you all to my first LIVE blog post! Well, sort of live.

What I mean by LIVE is that I just toted this here laptop out to my car to

yep, you guessed it,

inventory the items of my car! Yay!

Per a reader's (hi Dave!) request, I spent a good ten-twelve minutes clearing the mountain of snow off my car, then pulled it into the garage to clean it out. So, back by popular demand, here's the list of items that have accumulated in my car over the past several months:

In the main cavity of the car:

• a lamp
• wallet
• 6 CD cases
• 1 pair of shoes
• 3 receipts (one dated as late as Sep. 26)
• applesauce container and lid
• 11 used napkins/tissues/paper towels
• 6 unused napkins/tissues/PT's--which did remain in the car for future nose blowing
• Greater Kansas City "Street Finder" atlas
• my medical insurance info (safe place, there, underneath the seat, buried under:)

• Wonder Woman notebook
• various food, water bottle, and straw wrappers
• 1 (of 2, total) water bottle(s)
• lip gloss, interestingly not entirely frozen

Also. Yeah, we're not done here yet. That was just the front passenger seat. Did I not remind you to get a snack before reading this? My bad. In the rest of the car there was:

• 2 pairs of gloves
• bracelet
• 12 earrings
• Kleenex pack
• $1.11 in change
• industrial staples (Dad put those in there, btw...But, no, I haven't removed them since summer)
• bobbi pins
• hair ties
• 3 scarves
• 2 sweatshirts
• another tube of lip gloss, seemingly a little more frozen than the other, Sprite-flavored, one
• 2 dresses
• 2 hangers
• hat
• optical mouse
• 2 newspapers
• lotion
• sinus rinse bottle
• chapstick
• food processor
• 1 pair of sweatpants
• 7 cups
• 2 pens
• pastry bag with partially eaten donut (hi, Caitlin :)
• marker
• 18 socks
• 2 pieces of gum
• what I believe to be, but cannot be entirely sure it is: a yellow m&m
• a "Warhead" candy, stuck to the little "well" on the door, aka a door handle
• quality check sticker from...something...clothing, I assume
• tag from car dealership when I had service done on the car (this summer)
• straw
• coffee sleeve

And...there are paper towels in one of the cup holders. I will not tell you why they are there because believe it or not some things do embarrass me, and besides, if you contact Caitlin she will be more than happy to exploit me and my ways, I'm sure.

Um. But we're not done here. Oh no. I haven't told you about what I found in the trunk. Hold onto your hats, here we go!:

• a backpack (full of items which I am not going to inventory)
• a bra ;)
• 2 muffin tins
• cat litter
• 4 cups
• Cherry Coke can
• bowl (been there since Nov. 2, when I brought candy to the newsroom for election night. Maybe Nov. 3, if it was after midnight when I left the newsroom. Is that a little better? Saving face at all here?)
• microwaveable plate with lid
• green apron
• piece of tulle ribbon
• Charlie Brown notebook (not to be confused with the Wonder Woman notebook found in the main vehicle cavity), with notes inside from the Supreme Court case I covered--holla!
• 2 parking tickets (shhh)
• more paper--mostly school stuff
• 12 newspapers
• 2 (unused) napkins
• desk organizer tray

And, issues of the following magazines (keep in mind I am part of a journalism program, so the majority of these were free--if you're scratching your head at some of the titles):

Endless Vacation

Columbia Woman

Ladies' Home Journal

Better Homes and Gardens

Farm Journal

News China

Information Week

Columbia Magazine

New York

Communication Theory

Global Journalist (Univ. of Missouri production! Art Director=our very own DB reader, Mary!)

Milwaukee Magazine

The Week

Real Simple

Rolling Stone

Trust

Harvard Business Review

MBQ

The New Yorker

Emerging Photographer

Ahhh. So, my reflections on this particular cleaning session. Well, I have to say,

and I'm being honest here,

it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Quit laughing, Dave.

It has been worse. Don't believe me? Read this and then this and then cast your vote.

That could be thanks to Caitlin and Riley's pre-cleaning session, mentioned in a December post.

Also, I honestly thought I needed to buy more socks. I was just telling Mom I would like some more, and I only had four pairs with me in Chicago. Looks like I'll be good to go for my upcoming restricted-spending plan (stay tuned).

And, my meal choices may well be expanded if I bother to take some of the above items into my apartment. J-school friends, anyone up for muffins? Cupcakes? Anything requiring a food processor? I'm also coming back with a kitchen table, so we don't have to eat on the floor anymore! Yay!

Here's to second semester, with new cuisine and a--MORE than likely--still messy car. Cheers.