Very Exciting. As a Luggage Problem.
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I am currently in Brighton, UK visiting family. Yesterday, my elder daughter and I found ourselves in a charming little shop, Pen to Paper and I was contemplating buying a pencil case. Was it the right pencil case? How did it compare to other pencil cases? What if I bought the wrong pencil case and all the cool kids would snicker about my inferior pencil case when my back was turned or, worse, make a cutting remark about my pencil-case judgment?
Part of my problem is the internet. (Have you heard of the internet? I think it is gonna be big). On the internet you can search for endless reviews for any kind of product whatsoever. Imagine you are in a strange city and want tacos. You certainly don't want anything but the best tacos, so you search for reliable reviews of the best taco places. (As an aside, the concept of "best taco" has completely eluded the British. The best taco in the whole UK might be Taco Bell).
You might even get caught in an endless recursive loop, seekng out the reviews of review sites to find the sites that give the best product reviews. AI could eventually bring us reviews of sites that review review sites. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that of course there are sites that discuss the best pencil case (here, here)!
A reasonable question to ask would be, "Why would anyone put any thought into the kind of pencil case to carry?" or "Who even carries a pencil case as an adult except artists?" Well, it has to with my obsession about luggage. In my case, I pretty much have all the suitcases, backpacks, duffel bags here, (here), or shoulder bags (too many??) I would ever need so, to feed my habit, I'm reduced to researching the really small items in the world.
Too much stuff!
It all started when the family and I spent January 2005 in New Zealand. Yes, it was a fascinating trip that I'm sure you'd love to hear more about. But I'm choosing to tell you about luggage today. New Zealand is, according to my rough calculation, about a gazillion miles or a gazillion and a half kilometers from the United States. We arrived New Years Eve day, luggageless. All of our bags were out in the world, wandering around without us, leaving us in our lovely rented house at 9 Masons Ave in Hamilton NZ without a change of clothes to our name. We had been invited to a New Years Eve party, so we wrapped up in makeshift togas made of bedsheets, washed the clothes, donned the clothes and went to the party. New Year's Day we went to the Warehouse, "Where everyone gets a bargain!" a Walmart kind of store which was the only place open in civilized New Zealand and bought some clothes to last us until our luggage showed up, five days later. For New Zealand we had half-a-dozen huge suitcases. They were heavy. When we finally recovered them they were damaged. So, that began my adventure in luggage.
So many choices!
I'm not here to offer advice on how to pack. Nor am I interested in becoming a one-bag travel guru or to review the endless luggage options available to you (here), here. Nor am I interested in reviewing all the clever travel gear available to you. Yes, I might frequent websites where people explain what gadgets and stuff they put in their cool bags, but I figure they do that so I don't have to.
Don't get me wrong, I love all that gadgety stuff. If you think I don't lust after the Palmpress Coffee Press, the MOGICS Super Bagel, or the Dark Matter Black Titanium Nitride Infinium Space Pen then you don't know me at all. Don't feel any obligation at all to buy me anything like that as a special treat.
Of course, my paralyzing indecision around a pencil case means I'm now flying home from Brighton pencil-caseless. Somehow, I need to convince myself that this is because I'm a smart consumer rather than someone who maybe doesn't really need a pencil case.
jpj stories by John Jackson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
