My Kingdom for a Pen

It happened again. I was at a meeting with a top executive who has just joined the company and was trying to make a good impression. And so, I grabbed my notebook out of my gargantuan crumb-filled satchel and went on a desperate search for a pen.

It seems like an easy task, locating a pen inside your purse. But when your bag accidentally flips over in your car on the way home from the train station, the search becomes pretty complicated.

Without letting on that I was having a problem, I kept sticking my hand into the depths of my bag hoping I'd fish out a Mont Blanc, or a papermate, or a bic or a #2 pencil, but I came up empty every time. As I felt around the crevices of the bag, I wrapped my fingers around a chopstick, then some lip gloss, the lipstick I had been searching for these last few weeks and of course, my feminine hygiene supplies.

I then stuck my hand inside the zippered compartment, felt a bunch of business cards, my metrocard, some bank receipts, a crayon, lots of change, but no pen.

At this point, my face was getting flushed and I was on the verge of a breakdown. I still kept shoving my hand in the bag, hoping that one of my fishing expeditions would land me a writing utensil, but it never happened. I finally had to admit defeat and ask if I could borrow a pen.

Ever since that embarrassing ordeal, I've thrown about six pens in my bag and am ready for meetings that require copious note-taking. Now, if I could only find that lip liner I've been searching for, I'd be in business.