My shoes are a bit worse for wear. One of them even has traces of plastic glue from when I repaired it myself. At the time that made sense – I was living at a retreat center in the Colorado mountains. Plus, it satisfied my taste for being frugal.

Many people probably find that frugal attitude sort of funny, eccentric; I’ve always been a bit eccentric anyway.

I always carry my phone in my right pocket. Half its apps have been turned off or never used. My right hand has a tan line where I used to wear a digital watch, timed three minutes fast so I was never late.

An old friend gave me that watch -- he was an elderly man who played the trumpet in my last church. I happened to meet him one Sunday, he asked if I needed a watch and then took it from his trumpet case. He smiled as he handed it me, we chatted, and then he walked off.

My friend was funny like that, always showing up and doing something generous then disappearing to help someone else. I liked him.

My left pocket holds my key ring and wallet. There's a coin-sized keychain on the ring, something my mother gave me several birthdays ago. It says “Born to Write” on one side.

The wallet's just cheap leather, my father bought it at a county fair. It holds my various cards and there's a penny-sized indentation in one pocket. The pocket used to hold a two-cent Euro coin, one of my mementos of eight childhood years in Germany.

If I try hard enough, I can still remember things from my childhood -- the German countryside, my childhood house, German restaurants filled with noise and cigarette smoke. I need to find that coin soon.

My glasses are made by the company Jeff Banks of London. Their faded plastic frame suggests I should replace the glasses soon, and I’m not looking forward to it.

There’s something cool about wearing glasses with the brand name "Jeff Banks of London" -- especially since I get mistaken for being British or German every six months or so. Another one of my funny quirks.

These are the things I carry, these are the things that show who I am. Usually different, sometimes weird, sometimes humorous, often just a man trying to be himself.

For better or worse, I’m a funny guy.

(This article inspired by Tim O'Brien's short story "The Things They Carried")