Gratitude Monday: What have you got in your wallet?

Had a bit of a brain glitch one day last week. I went to Willard’s BBQ for take out and in the bustle of collecting the order and adding all the extra sauce containers I left my wallet on the counter.

(Since I quit working, I don’t bother with a handbag anymore; I just take my wallet and my keys. If I need anything more—like my laptop or something to take notes, I dump it all in a backpack. But that wallet-only does mean I have to carry it in my hand, because it’s a little fat for my trousers pockets.)

Well, when I got home, I rifled through the car, then called Willard’s, and the guy who answered said he couldn’t see any wallet. But, just in case, I drove back, and there it was, right beside the cash register. The fella who’d taken my order saw it on the counter and set it aside.

I thanked him profusely and pulled out a Jackson for the tip jar. He said I didn’t need to do that, but I just said, “All my library cards!”

And, here’s the thing—yes, two credit cards and two debit/ATM cards, and the driver’s license. Those would all have to be replaced. But it’s all the rest of the nonsense I stuff into that wallet. I pulled them all out yesterday just to take inventory:

Cards to multiple local libraries
Grocery store affinity cards
Health insurance cards
Costco card
Coffee club card for Nordstrom (last occasion I was anywhere near a Nordstrom was in the Before Times)
Weird Brothers coffee card (I quit going to Weird Brothers when they ditched the punch card and went to an app)
Starbucks gift card (No idea where I got that, but probably at a conference)
Two Target gift cards (Haven’t been in a Target since they caved to the Kleptocrat)
Metro fare card
Shell gift card (That was a reward for filling out a post-training survey at the Gigantic Software Corporation…in 2009)
Trader Joe gift card
National Parks lifetime pass

There was some cash in it too, because I’d gone to the farmers market on Saturday and they charge you a “convenience” fee if you use credit card instead of cash. But I confess that I go weeks and even months without ever pulling out currency because it’s easier to just use plastic.

Well, for Gratitude Monday today, I’m obviously grateful for the guys at Willard’s who saved me from losing all those bits and pieces. I’m also grateful for having it called to my attention that I might not even need my wallet—if I could just add one of those card holder jobbers to the back of my mobile phone, I could just carry it, with my driver’s license and Amex card tucked into the holder.

That I can fit into my pockets.

 

©2025 Bas Bleu