The Landing Pad

They go by many names. My mother called hers The Junk Drawer. It was in a corner by the telephone and everything under the sun was there. Except for a pen that worked, a telephone book, the right kind or size of screwdriver that you needed right now or a paper clip. I'm sure you have one in your kitchen as well.

In my house I call it the Landing Pad. Everything just kind of lands there. It is in the corner of the kitchen island, the first place to set things down when coming in the house. My keys and cell phone are stored there. The rubber bands off of the newspaper are corralled in a dish to be recycled to the carrier. Reading glasses, pens and pencils are there.

Unfortunately, over time lots of other items find their way into the drawer, sometimes because the doorbell rang and I want to clear the junk off the island. But more often than that, I just plain don't know what to do with an item so I shove it in there, out of sight and soon forgotten. Until the drawer won't close anymore.

Today I cleaned out the Landing Pad. Here are a few things that were hiding in there:

Eight (yes, 8) eyeglass cases plus five reading glasses.
Three old cell phones (the girls will be delighted!).
A mass of jumbled up ear buds, probably three sets.
Various road finds (2 golf balls, man's watch, jewelry bits, car wash tokens, etc).
Six road find tools that went in my tool box.
Unidentifiable single keys (I think I know what the #48 fits).
Motel room key from a Fairfield Inn somewhere.
Stack of Great Harvest cards, probably enough for three loaves of bread.
A strange piece to my camera. Binged it and found that it is a filter holder for the flash unit.
Cough drops to last a year and five tubes of lip gloss.
A torn dollar bill that Zeus offered to take to the bank. No, it goes in with the rest of the pieces. Lots of bits of paper that went into the recycling bin.

Now it looks like this. It won't stay that way for long.

$4.06 plus a Sony Memory Stick.