Commuter Show and Tell Purse Dump

Kendra at Catholic All Year did a purse dump linkup recently. I love these things because it's fun to see what other people carry around. Also: material culture! You're welcome, historians of the future. Here's what some ladies of the Twenty-Teens were schlepping around.

This is the random brand, fake leather big bag that I take to work every day. I've mentioned before that I am always on the lookout for functionality in a bag.

I found her on Columbus Day at a TJ Maxx under the Queensboro Bridge. The cross-body strap and multiple interior pockets were key selling points. She's looking a little worse for wear these days - note broken clasps replaced by classy carabiner clips. Also, my black wool winter coat appears to be wearing off on her. A spring/summer upgrade may be in my future.

First, the commuter survival essentials I can't do without.

From top left I have:

• Book to read, currently Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. The NYPL has the most efficient inter-branch loan systems I've ever seen. All 7 of my holds arrived at once last week so I'm trying to keep up with due dates.
• Wallet, because even with a bag full of stuff sometimes you have to run to Duane Reade or a food truck. 
• Umbrella, because the day you forget it will be the day it pours. 
• Hand sanitzer, because sometimes you have to touch subway poles. 
• NJTransit monthly pass and MetroCard holder so I can get to my office. The Vera Bradley pouch was a thank-you gift from a former intern after I served as a job reference. The plastic holder is a vintage image of Grand Central, because Penn is too hideous to put on merchandise.
• Headphones, because sometimes trains are noisy and you need to tune out the world with a podcast. 
• Staff ID from the Museum's fundraising gala in October. Because I never clean out my purse? 
• Business card holder - the image is a detail of the Roy Lichtenstein mural at the 42nd Street/Times Square subway station. 

Next is all the cosmetic/medical stuff that keeps me from making emergency Duane Reade purchases.

From top left: 

• Cough drops
• Heat patches for when my back acts up
• Tea bags for when I need a hot drink
• Gum for fresh breath
• Bandaids for shoe blisters and for papercuts while rolling 900 Gala poster favors
• Hand lotion for dry winter weather
• Ibuprofen for headaches - I refill it from our big generic container at home
• Hair ties for ponytail emergencies
• Vincent Van Gogh lens cloth from the Carnegie Art Institute gift shop
• Lip gloss - it's poppin'
• Pens and mechanical pencil
• Target generic Lactaid pills, because I am lactose intolerant but still like cheese
• Tissue, because cold season
• Spare pair of socks? Ok
• Fingerless gloves, a random purchase from the street vendor outside my Brooklyn subway stop. Even street urchins like to keep warm while using their iPhones. 

And finally here's the random paper stuff that I removed thanks to this exercise.  

Left to right: outdated train schedule, playbill from seeing a Broadway show with my aunt and cousin, outdated museum children's calendar, notepad for weekly staff meetings.

Not pictured: keys, coffee travel mug, foldable nylon tote bag (it's currently holding 15 posters of Grand Central Terminal) and various lunch tupperware containers. My sweet husband makes me coffee every morning and packs me a lunch so I can get out the door bright and early to catch my train. And then I join the herds of commuters carrying at least one bag across the river and down the tracks. 

The Empty Tabernacle

"They've closed the chapel at Brideshead, Bridey and the Bishop. Mummy's requiem was the last Mass said there. 

After she was buried the priest came in ... and took out the altar stone and put it in his bag

 ... and blew out the lamp in the sanctuary, 

and left the tabernacle open and empty,

as if from now on it was always to be Good Friday." - Brideshead Revisted

Seeing the empty tabernacle and stripped altar is my favorite part of Good Friday. Like the sede vacante period, this emptiness only happens once in a while, and so is a powerful reminder of why we love the persons who normally fill that space. The dramatic, sparse mourning of the Triduum sanctifies the sorrow and loneliness that all humans experience. 

Like last year when I was newly engaged, this Lent has been full of exciting new plans that have kept me from feeling somber. But honestly, the past two years have been like one long Lent of underemployment, debt, and uncertainty. The Betrothed and I spent lonely Easters last year on different continents. We had a grainy Skype conversation and vowed "Next year, in Jerusalem!" 

On Christmas Eve, God finally answered our prayers with a job offer for me in New York. I've relocated for love, and finally live in the same state as my future husband. So now Lent is over and we are in Holy Saturday until June 15, waiting, praying, and keeping watch over empty space. I live alone in the apartment that will soon be our home. Different schedules and locations mean we often sit solo in church pews. Every weekend is a puzzle of who will drive where. It's hard for our lives to be so divided. 

The ache and emptiness that hit me when we started long-distance dating is still present. I long for unity with the man I love, and finally to share a home with him and God. I'm not a model Catholic woman, patiently suffering. Too often, I have given in to self-pity and despair. I worry that I have wasted this cross or have failed at being a witness of Christian joy. Sure, secular world, don't shack up with your beloved. Instead, be as miserable as I am! 

Fellow engaged woman Elizabeth recently pointed out that feeling a longing for marriage during the Triduum is actually quite appropriate.  Christ's Passion and Resurrection were His greatest expression of love for His bride, the Church. Why shouldn't we want the same spousal self-giving and unity? So this weekend, when I wish for the millionth time that we were married already, I'll try to unite that wishing to Christ's great desire and love for the Church. I'll think of the great mystery that The Betrothed and I will soon become united to, and its promise that God's people will not face emptiness forever. 

Photos:
1. Good Friday 2013 at Holy Innocents, Manhattan. 

2, 3, 5. Good Friday 2008 at College of William and Mary Catholic Campus Ministry Chapel, Williamsburg, VA

4. Good Friday 2013 at St. Francis Church St. Anthony Chapel, Manhattan

St. Monica Church, New York City

Whenever I'm traveling, I enjoy the chance to check out churches I've never seen before.

During my upper east side adventure visiting a friend last weekend, I went to Sunday Mass at a parish that was conveniently located literally around the corner. St. Monica's church building was begun in the 1880s and completed in 1906. It's in a pretty standard Gothic revival style, but the decorative elements are exceptionally good.

Thanks to recent renovations, the interior really sparkles. The freestanding altar is obviously a post-Vatican II addition, but it complements the original nicely.

The stained glass windows were one of my favorite parts. They seemed very L. C. Tiffany-esque, with their intricate detailing and the soft edges of the pictures. I wish I had had time to photograph all of them.

Quick Takes about the Big Apple

1. Last year my grad school class took a field trip to see the "Americana Week" antiques shows in New York. It was so much fun that this year several of my classmates and I planned a mini-reunion redux of the adventure. This time, instead of the Times Square Hampton Inn, we all crashed on the living room floor of H's tiny Upper East Side 5th floor walkup. (For the record, I did not have to subsist on salad this year. Thank goodness.)
2. Of course, it ended up being the snowiest weekend of the year, but wind and slush did not deter us from dec arts. We have been trained well. 





The view outside when we woke up on Saturday. 



3. All 5 of us wore some variation of "gray sweater dress/tights/boots" for our 4 exhibition journey. I swear this was an accident. 
4. There were tons of little kids running around in puffy coats, grabbing hunks of snow off the sidewalks. Since I am a child of the suburbs, I always wonder about kids in New York. Does an urban upbringing make you fearless? Do you remember those early years spent bundled up in a stroller behind a plastic shield? 
5. The newly-renovated New York Historical Society has a great kids' section. You can write newspaper headlines, record yourself speechifying, look at different boroughs through a viewmaster thingy, and get inaugurated as the first president. Oh, and there is a newsies touch-screen game. I owned at selling those papes. 





I also ran into the Marx Brothers



6. Here's a tip, kids: do NOT attempt to check a suitcase at The Met, even if you are just running through the Islamic galleries on your way to catch the Megabus. Their security guards are well-trained to think luggage = art thief/terrorist. They will politely, but firmly tell you to get lost. Even if they just watched you schlep said suitcase up two flights of stairs to the entrance. 
7. Speaking of suitcases, they are also totally impractical on the stair-laden subway.  After riding on public transportation in both New York and DC, I have decided that the subway is definitely superior to the Metro. (As if there were any question, amirite Washingtonians?)
   DC Metro advantages: Escalators, stations that don't feel claustrophobic, cleanliness, very little graffiti, colored lines with names and directions that quickly make sense on a map to the uninitiated. 
   NY Subway advantages: Express trains, an abundance of track options, flat rate for each ride, not needing to scan a card to exit, lack of easily broken escalators, MOSAICS. 

For more quick takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary.