#72 Be Prepared!
Sometimes I let pop culture affect the way I live my life.
One such instance is an episode of the 90’s sitcom “Mad About You”.
Titled “Purseona”, the show begins with the ever disorganized Lisa getting ready for an important job interview while being on the receiving end of a stream of advice from her extremely capable sister Jamie.
Jamie and Lisa just happen to have identical purses – capacious affairs with lots of pockets and, as it turns out, some surprises.
As the two women scramble to gather up their stuff and head out, the purses get swapped.
In typical sitcom fashion hilarity ensues as Lisa encounters setback after setback only to discover that her purse suddenly contains exactly what she needs to overcome each obstacle, while, on the other end of the spectrum, the always perfectly prepared Jamie spirals downward and becomes a chaotic hapless mess as her purse yields one odd “Lisa-like” object after another. (The stun gun leads to a particularly funny sequence.)
Anyway, the big takeaway from the episode is that people who carry around a bunch of the right stuff are more successful than people who muddle through life lugging the wrong stuff – or not enough stuff – a lesson I took to heart long ago and one that has saved me from some sticky situations.
This weekend I was just about to jump in the car for a big road trip when a little voice really did prompt me to grab my sewing kit.
Actually, sewing kit is a bit of a misnomer. It’s not just your standard needle, a bit of thread, and a button.
No, it is a zippered pouch which includes, but is not limited to, tiny scissors, a film canister filled with safety pins, straight pins, a spool of white thread, an eyeglass repair kit (complete with small magnifying glass), a variety of needles, two hotel sewing kits (souvenirs of stays at some of your fancier lodging options), Butler gum threaders (useful in a variety of tricky situations where a flexible loop may be required), and a crochet hook.
A crochet hook?
Yes, a crochet hook.
And before you laugh or scratch your head at this one, know that, of the items listed above, it was the crochet hook that turned out to be the star of the trip.
It was first called into service to fix some stray threads in a fancy shawl – something totally in line with its standard mission in life.
But it was really the moment at 10:45, when my husband and I were trying to sleep, that the hook became the hero of the hour.
Because one of the other things I usually take on a trip is a small fan, both for its cooling properties and its ability to drown out any unpleasant and/or unwelcome noises from neighboring hotel rooms. (I’ll just leave that there.)
And one of the items that my husband carries about with him – not just on trips but always – is dental floss.
So sometimes one might just see a length of that dental floss sitting on the desk preparatory to use the next day.
Which is fine.
Unless your daughter, who is trying very hard to be quiet and stealthy and not wake you up as she makes her way past the foot of the hotel bed in darkness, somehow bumps into the fan, leading it to suck the dental floss into its interior.
Causing a sudden “guaranteed to wake the dead” rattle to emanate from said fan.
Horrified, the daughter is now trying, without success, to stifle the clattering fan, knowing that simply turning it off will create a sound vacuum and either way we are definitely going to be roused from slumber.
Which, of course, we were.
But only for a minute because I was able to immediately access my trusty crochet hook and use it to fish the dental floss out of the depths of the fan thus restoring it to normal operation.
So, the lesson for the day is, when that little voice tells you things, listen.
And always carry a crochet hook.
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Crochet is a MUST when traveling. I once used one to open a bottle of wine. As long as you looked past the crumbled cork in each plastic bathroom glass it was great! Yes, the hotel was of the caliber that it didn’t have one at the desk. This newsletter made me laugh. Thank you!