Friday Five: What You Absolutely, Postively, Can't Leave Home Without

Singing Owl writes...We will be at a chaplain's convention when you all are answering the Friday Five Questions. I'll look forward to reading your answers next week when I get home. At the moment we are trying to get the car loaded so we can hit the road, so this will be a simple F.F. This running around madly in order to leave has me wondering: what are the five things you simply must have when you are away from home? And why? Any history or goofy things, or stories?

Such a timely Friday Five, as we are on vacation in Northern Michigan, beginning our second wonderful week here. We come to the same summer cottage each year; we know its supplies and deficiencies so well now that we have a packing list on the computer that we update at the end of each vacation for the next year.

But when I travel, these are the things that I always take along...
1. My slippers - navy blue scuffs that, when I put them on, make anywhere feel comfy and a little more like home. Don't know how long ago I got into this habit, but my year as an exchange student in Japan made me very comfortable with a scuff slipper, because that is what you slip into when you slip out of your shoes at the entrance of a home. Still tend to leave my shoes at the door if allowed to do so...after 32 years!

2. A good book and a magazine or two. Leisure eading is a getaway activity for me. On this trip I brought Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Oprah, and Southern Living magazines, and Fearless Fourteen, Miracle at Speedy Motors, Whitethorne Woods, Amazing Grace, Write Yourself Right Size, and Starting Over.

3. A corkscrew - we've bought a few along the way, and so there are enough floating around our toiletry bags to never go without.

4. Make-up, or at least lipstick and contact lens comfort drops. Need I say more?

5. Blackberry Pearl - a few months ago I would have said my laptop. I used to take it everywhere. But last month our son and I took a trip to Denver, CO to see the Rockies with my mom. And because the Pearl allows me to view e-mails and scan the web, I just didn't need my laptop along. It felt good! But here for two weeks, I have the LT - it would have been too hard to do a Friday Five on the Pearl!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, safe journeys and joyful homecomings to any and all who are traveling, and the wisdom to receive and enjoy this day for the gift that it is.