One Bag Lighter
Originally posted January 04, 2005. See above for further entries.
One of the things I take pride in is being effecient at packing for travel. In the past few years I've honed my travel gear down to minimum effective levels and established a rigorous method of packing everything. It took a three-continent quest but I've finally acquired the perfect set of luggage for almost any occasion. Beyond the matter of the actual luggage I've also reduced the list of things I take with me to a very carefully selected few that allow the greatest diversity (casual-formal, for instance) with the least bulk. I know exactly what I need to take and I know exactly which fold, corner, or pocket of a bag it fits best in. This I consider one of the crowning achievements of my life thus far.
Today when I set off for SFO I was carrying a suitcase of clothes and a Jack Spade Field Bag containing the following:
- Waterfield Designs laptop sleeve
- 15" Apple Powerbook (aluminum)
- Powerbook power brick and cable
- Nikon 4500 digital camera with 256mb card
- $180 cash
- Perscription Muji eye glasses
- Perscription Booth & Bruce sunglasses
- Ericsson t610 cellular phone and charger
- Magazine: Surface (with interesting content, for a change)
- Magazine: Architectural Record
- Book: Difficult Loves
- Book: Empire
- Small Comme Des Garcons leather pouch
- B&O earphones in case
- PCMCIA compact flash adapter
- Thin moleskin notebook (1/3 filled)
- Small hollow faux-gold plated pig (used to contain chocolate)
- Pig-shaped eraser (coincidence)
- Apartment keys on charished keyring from IDEE Experience
- Atypk's Kill Time activity book
- Black felt tipped pen
- Pentel mechanical pencil
- WE LIKE TO ROCK special edition DVD compiled by GAC
After a quick stop in Hayes Valley, Courtney and I returned to the car to discover a window pummeled into decorative, sharp shards spread across the sidewalk. Broken. This newly created opening in the vehicle allowed someone to avail themselves of the above-mentioned perfectly-honed travel rig and make off.
Tonight my life is one computer, one camera, one phone, and a couple books lighter. Most of my data is gone and while I believe that almost all of my pictures are backed up, the same cannot be said for work for clients which I forgot to include in the last backup. I'm only slightly angry; mostly I hope that whoever took my things needs them more than I do. I'd like to think that I'm not attached too much to the things in my life, even if I was particularly happy with the combination and relationship between those specific travel items.
There was one upside, however. When I finally did make it to the airport it sure made check-in a lot easier.
I hope that you've given as much spare money as you have to someone like this, but on the next paycheck there's a grad student who-- while feeling particularly pathetic about this-- seeks adoring public who values photos, wants to restore the magic, as they say. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
p.s. This makes 200 posts to bryanboyer.com along with various other side projects, photos, and flash things since we first got the domain in 1999.