(Side note: For years now I have remembered that there was a third type of wreckage besides flotsam and jetsam, but I could never remember what it was. So I typed “flotsam, jetsam, and” into the search bar and Google filled in “and lagan.” I love the internet.)
(Flotsam: goods that have are floating on the water, not deliberately thrown in, as after a shipwreck. If found, remains the property of the original owner.
Jetsam: goods that have been thrown into the water (jettisoned) by the crew deliberately, so as to lighten the ship in an emergency. If found, becomes the property of the finder.
Lagan: goods tied to a buoy, so the owner can find return and find them later.
Derelict (bonus word): property abandoned at sea without hope of recovery, including shipwrecks.)
On Wednesday I parked my car in a valet lot in San Francisco. The backseat of my car has been collecting goods for some time now, and although I knew it was mostly stuff of little or no value, it made me nervous leaving it in a lot in the middle of a big city, probably with the windows down and the car unlocked. So I took a giant Target bag out and filled it up with everything worth keeping, filled a Safeway bag with stuff that was obviously trash, and stuck the “save” stuff in the trunk. I now bring you a list of the things that have been so important they’ve been riding around with me for probably thousands of miles.
-A binder with scripts and various notes from each of my 3 shows at MTC
-A box of Lipton decaf tea bags
-A UC Davis hoodie
-$1.84 in change
-1 sock
-5 single-serve packets of Crystal Light raspberry lemonade
-My high school graduation tassel
-The purple sunglasses I don’t wear anymore because they leave marks on my nose
-The end of a roll of black gaff tape
-The bill for my car registration
-3 scarves, none of which I’ve worn in at least a year and a half
-Roseanne Barr’s autobiography, My Life As A Woman
-My cigarette-lighter phone charger (I actually use this frequently)
-3 empty plastic bottles
-Aimee Bender’s The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
-Thank you notes from 2 of the MTC shows
-Varying feminine hygeine products
I need to simplify my life.
The Cameraphone Diaries 
One reply on “Flotsam, Jetsam, and Lagan”
If the search box suggestions ever fail you there is an interesting google tool for creating lists called “Google Sets”. basically you can tell it 2-5 things and it will make a list of 15 or more related things. pretty cool. http://labs.google.com/sets