Chiara Atik, What’s in Your Handbag Right Now?

by The Hairpin

If you’re curious about participating in or even imagining participating in that Bloomsday Dublin-trip-and-reading-club mentioned yesterday, here’s what one of its organizers carried around with her [several weeks ago]. Chiara “Ulysses” Atik, what’s actually in your bag right now?

Left to right, top to bottom:

1. Large Moleskine Notebook using for a project (soft cover, unlined).

2. La solitudine dei numeri primi, by Paolo Giordano.*

3. Sex and the Single Girl, by Helen Gurley Brown.

4. The 158-Pound Marriage, by John Irving.

5. A warm Cherry Coke Zero from yesterday.

6. Noise-canceling headphones.

7. A smaller Moleskine (hard cover, lined).

8. A crumpled check that I keep forgetting to cash.

9. A dollar!

10. A packet of hairbands.

11. My wallet.

12. A card some club promoter handed me on 10th Ave when I was on the phone and too distracted to avoid him. ($3 Bud Light Drafts at PJ Bricks!)

13. An iPhone Charger. (The thing about iPhones is that you actually have to take your charger everywhere. When I pack a small purse for nights out, it’s pretty much entirely taken up by my iPhone charger and I stuff everything else into my coat pockets.)

14. A Duane Reade receipt.

15. My keys.

16. A ticket to “Belleville” at Yale Rep from three weeks ago.

17. Three pens (including my trusty “LA Opera” one).

18. Benefit “Boi-ing” concealer.

19. Benefit “Bad Gal” Lash, which is sort of an embarrassing name to type out.

20. 2 Clinique Lipsticks (“Red-y To Wear” and “Creamy Nude,” also embarrassing to type out).

21. Some unidentifiable Essie nail polish.

22. Clinique gel eyeliner in Black Honey.

23. A piece of paper with “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” written on it.

24. Those nylon sock things from when I was trying on shoes last weekend. (Should I keep these? No, right?)

25. A bracelet that I’m just now noticing exactly matches my purse, so, mental note, don’t wear both.

26. A cheesy “NYU Alumni” chapstick that’s probably expired and sort of burns my lips at this point, but I kind of love the looks I get when I nonchalantly whip out an “NYU Alumni” chapstick and, you know, actually use it.

27. A crumpled up tissue!

28. A quarter!

*Let me explain the excessive amount of books. One of them is research for a project I’m working on for HowAboutWe, but too embarrassing to openly read on the subway (guess which one!). So I needed another book fit for public consumption, but I’m only a chapter away from finishing the Giordano, and as it sucks to sit down on the subway and finish your book, I have the John Irving ready to go.