Today's character building moment: A big yellow purse, a rubber chicken and a grocery store

The first of two important things to know about me is that I usually carry a pretty big purse. I have an iPad, and a job that requires me to cart stuff from place to place on a regular basis, plus I buy into the idea (whether it’s true or not) that a big purse makes my butt look smaller. So a big purse just makes sense. I rotate my purses every three months or so; my most current one is yellow:

The second thing is that my friend Heidi, who is amazing for a host of reasons, is a great “go-to” person for stuff that you may not necessarily have on hand. Stuff like a small black handbag for a special occasion or a large roasting pan – that kind of thing. So when I was at her house last night and mentioned that I needed a rubber chicken for the high school Homecoming parade today, it didn’t come as a huge surprise that she not only had one, but knew exactly where it was.

She schlepped out to the garage, repaired the thing’s severed leg with some strapping tape and handed it over. I put it in my big yellow purse and kind of forgot about it. Until I went to the grocery store this morning.

I went there to get candy to throw at said Homecoming parade, so grabbed a bunch of that pick-a-mix stuff and headed to the checkout. Without really looking at my purse I went for my wallet, grabbed it and whipped it out, along with Heidi's injured rubber chicken.

It flew out of the yellow bag and landed on the conveyor belt with a flop and its severed leg, which had come free from its strapping tape, flew at the guy who was standing at the end to bag the groceries.

I looked at the chicken. I looked at the cashier. I swear I don’t know why I said this, but I blurted out, “I borrowed it from Heidi.” She nodded as if she understood completely. The bag guy simply handed me my severed rubber chicken leg and my bagged candy and told me to have a nice day.

It makes you wonder about the kind of people they see in that grocery store that a rubber chicken incident was really no big deal.

This isn’t the first time something weird has emerged from my purse. One time, my sports bra came out when I went to pay for a sandwich. Of a few occasions, I have gone for a pen only to come up with a tampon. It’s just who I am, people.

But every single time something like that happens, I’m met with grace and understanding from the person or people who witnessed it.  There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

In the meantime, I’m hoping that carrying around the rubber chicken in my purse brings some good karma to the football team tonight.

Go Vikes – beat the Hawks!