the drawer of things I don't have any idea what to do with

Does everyone have one of these? A drawer full of kind of nifty things you have no idea what to do with? Except they look neat and kind of useful, so you know you should keep them for something.

Not that you ever do figure out a use for them.

I have some things in my nifty-drawer that have been there for years. Periodically I go through it just to see what's there, and sometimes I admire some of the items, because let's face it, sometimes I keep things just because they're pretty.

And who knows--I might come up with a really good use for them one day. It's doubtful, sure, but you never know.

This morning I found in my odds-and-ends drawer a pretty bright blue leather-covered notebook, small enough to fit in a purse; an extra car-charger for my phone (always useful!); a long chain of safety pins all clipped together; a plastic over-the-counter fountain pen inexplicably filled with purple ink; and some extra post-its.

Then there were the pocket-sized hand sanitizers (at least three or four of them); myriad disposable fountain pens, mostly broken; the medal for first place in the Encinitas marathon (that can't be mine!); a long safety-pin chain necklace; an extra USB device; a tape measure; a white-out taping device; and about five miscellaneous chargers that don't fit into anything I recognize.

The only thing I know I can be really certain of here is that I better not throw any of it out. Because as soon as I do, it will become immediately apparent what that thing was for, and I'm going to need it RIGHT NOW.

Of course, if I don't throw these things out, they will continue to rattle around in my drawers baffling me. But that's just another variant of Murphy's Law. And probably of brain tumors.

But one day it will undoubtedly happen: in a moment of weakness I'll clean up, and by golly, I'll regret it forever.