Everything but...

It's cold and cloudy and rainy. Think I want to be at work?
I thought that it would be rainy but still keep the humidity of yesterday so I did not dress for the weather. Bean is wearing jeans and a t-shirt with an oversized sweatshirt over the top. When did my kid grow more common sense than me?? We were running late (quelle surprise) and the chilliness of the wind didn't register until the door shut behind me. And I could have turned around, unlocked the door and changed into something warmer. There is a black sweater on the couch in the living room. No, I thought, we're already late, and there is sure to be something I can wear in the car.
My car. I drive an SUV and there is so much stuff packed in my car that it is difficult to fit more than one other person in it. It's an embarrassment. It's disgraceful. It's bad for my (already bad) fuel economy. It's also very handy. Bean needs a roll of paper towels for school this morning? Probably an extra roll in the back. Advil? Yup. Books? Uh-huh. Towels? Absolutely. A few boxes of kleenex, a package of granola bars, bottled water, markers and paper, tissue paper and gift bags, hair brush and rubber bands, a few scarves, bean's spare jacket and a bag of kitty litter that I forgot to take in and then forgot entirely until I bought another bag and took that one in. None of this was intentional. Most of it was purchased on the way to somewhere else and then it just never made it in the house. There are things that should be taken in, but there are also things that have ended up being so handy that we kept it... Bean, for example, has an entire change of clothes - clean and ready - because she left her bag from camp in the car, not long after she decided to stay overnight when we visited my mom. It was convenient to not have to go all the way home and come all the way back so I replaced the bag of clean clothes. The water and granola bars were a non-McDonalds snack on the way from school to swimming lessons that morphed into emergency breakfast before it became a staple. I keep gift bags and tissue paper because I never ever remember to buy and wrap a gift on time.
And I usually have clothes in there for me, too. Like the other smart people in this part of the country, in spring and fall I dress in layers. It is not an exaggeration to say that there might be a temperature arc of 40 degrees from the time you leave the house until you come home again.

Of course, today, when I needed a sweater or sweatshirt here's what I found: one flip-flop (purple), a t-shirt from a museum, a long jean skirt (ordered from eBay several months ago to replace the one I have that is falling apart, forgotten until this morning) and a glove.

What the hell?
Everything useful in the free world is in my damn car.

Everything but a sweater. I really need an easy pattern for a big sweater... So I could leave IT on the couch and want it on days like this.
Luckily it's always toasty in the control room...

Cheers!