Why is my purse so heavy?

I recently joked that my purses have grown so large that you could carry a third world country around in it. That may be an exaggeration, but it sometimes feels that way. I used to be able to stick my license and money in one pocket and car keys in the other and go. As I’ve gotten older, I have to have so much more “stuff”. Car keys now have those big old fancy button pushing things that you need to lock or unlock your car. I have that and my car key, house key, PO box key, daughters spare key all on one ring which is WAY too bulky to stick in a pocket. Since you want to be prepared for any contingency when you leave home, you now have to have money, debit cards, credit cards, and check books when you go anywhere, “just in case”. Not to mention office supply rewards card, three grocery store reward cards, Sam’s Club cards, AAA card, and much more. So forget sticking cash and a license in my pocket. Then of course, you need the pill case with the Advil in case somebody gets a sinus headaches, Aleve because that’s MY drug of choice, chewable aspirin in case I get one of those “sun” headaches and don’t have anything to drink to swallow a pill with, which I have now learned if a woman is having a heart attack she should take an aspirin. So if I start to have chest pains, somebody grab one of the little orange pills and stick it in my mouth. Then there is the Zantac so I don’t get acid reflux, which will make me FEEL like I’m having a heart attack. So I maybe better take a chewable aspirin with the Zantac in case it IS a heart attack instead of acid reflux. Add to that I’m obsessed with making sure I have Band Aids, nail file, nail clippers, and stuff in case of emergency. Then since we live in the germaphobic era, I have to have Germ X in my purse. Add to that my sunglasses and billfold and a notebook for my famous lists and an ink pen, and you get a pretty full package. Then on Saturday, the kids like to ride in my buggy when we go shopping so I have to stick a diaper, wipees, and sippy cup in my purse “just in case”. Then of course I always carry a calculator to make sure I don’t overspend. Then there is the famous cell phone we can’t leave home without. And Waa Lah. There you have it ….. a purse big enough to carry a third world country. I recently had some friends on Facebook sharing what was in their purse. One has been carrying enough paper trash to fill a landfill. She also had 2 packs of instant oatmeal “just in case”. One had a cup of pudding she carried for so long; she forgot WHY she put it in there in the first place. My own daughter, returning from a trip to Mickey D’s, had to dig past the fire trucks and semi’s in her purse to find the honey mustard and barbeque sauce. One Saturday not to log ago, I left my purse in the back seat of the car with the kids. On Sunday morning when I went to change purses for church, I found one of Saturday’s French fries in my purse. Like so many other things in my purse, I stopped and pondered, “How did THAT get in there.”