Getting ready in the car

For now, I'm a commuter. I hope to not be for much longer (do you want to buy my house?), but for now, I'm back and forth between Lincoln and Omaha so often that I can tell you which varieties of Clif bars are available at pretty much every gas station between Wood Park in Lincoln and the Omaha World-Herald, and I have both Lincoln and Omaha's NPR affiliate schedules memorized.

I have also fine-tuned the art of getting ready in the car.

I regularly fix my hair and touch up my makeup in the car. Less often, I also brush my teeth and even change entire outfits in the car. I was talking to a friend about this the other day, herself a former commuter very accustomed to getting ready in the car. There is an art to it, we decided.

First, some givens:

-- The weather hates you

-- No matter how awesome your outfit looked when you left your house (60 miles away) in the morning, you are probably going to either hate it or have spilled something on it by the time whatever post-work event you've committed to rolls around. Or you shoes will have given you gigantic blisters. Or your belt will have broken. Et cetera.

-- After eight hours at your desk, your hair is flat and your skin is greasy.

I have taken to having the following things in my car at (almost) all times: an umbrella, a roll of paper towels, a pair of relatively comfortable shoes, a plain T-shirt, a pair of big blingy earrings to dress up the T-shirt (should the need arise), a hoodie, toothbrush and toothpaste, water, hairspray, pressed powder, mascara and lipstick (actually, the lipstick stays in my purse, where it won't melt). With these things, I can make myself look presentable and somewhat appropriately dressed for most unexpected post-work occasions. I've become pretty good at changing discreetly in the car (though a gas station bathroom works, too, in a pinch). And also at using lipstick as blush and chapstick as eyeshadow (a trick I'm pretty sure I learned from Sassy magazine, though it may have been Mademoiselle. In any case, RIP, magazine). For the summer, I think adding a swim suit and beach towel to my survival kit might be wise.

I feel simultaneously like a bag lady and like I'm never *quite* prepared -- if I also happened to have a pair of shorts, or a plain black skirt, or a bigger/smaller/dressier/beachier bag THEN I would really have everything I needed. Alas, my whole closet won't fit in my trunk, so for now, I'm sticking to the above survival kit. I know I'm not the only person who has one of these. What's in yours?