Battle Of The Backpack
Backpacks and me, we used to get along. This week, the backpack and I had a rough week. We were constantly fighting. Things just weren’t working out particularly well; and then last night, we came to blows. I just couldn’t take it anymore and he was just as angry and we ended up in an all out war.
Backpacks and I go way back, all the way to kindergarten like pretty much every other kid. In elementary school I didn’t mind them, in middle school I was too cool for them, in high school I hated them and only because they weighed one ton because of all the books I had to carry, in college I wavered between satchels and backpacks, and now, as a grown up, out of school, I prefer backpacks to purses. You just don’t ever see me without my backpack. Call it a security blanket if you will. It goes everywhere with me.
Last night it was with me when I needed to put gas in my car. Do you think I could find my visa in my backpack? No, I couldn’t. Why you ask, because I couldn’t find my wallet. So I had to use my precious cash and that was the last straw.
What the problem really boiled down to is the fact that my backpack became that in which I make fun of most women for. It became the endless black hole that contains anything and everything but that in which you can find nothing. And the truth is, it really didn’t contain more than usual, it was just so disorganized and I couldn’t find what I wanted when I wanted it. It frustrated me on numerous occasions. I make fun of the majority of my friends because their purses are basically your run of the mill Mary Poppins bottomless carpetbag, they’ve got everything in there, you have to wonder if the coat rack is in there with the coat. The problem really lies in the fact that their purses are just so big they can afford to carry all the crap they carry (granite to them, what they carry around isn’t crap). So back to my backpack, it was decided that it was just to big.
As a result, a battle between backpack and I quickly ensued.
Of course, I won. Because that’s what I like to do when I’m in a battle. Win, but then again, that’s the point. As a result, I needed a new bag. Not a backpack, not a purse, not a go to school satchel type bag either. Something small but not too small. I needed it to carry my juice box, glucose meter, glucose tabs, glucose gel, glucagon kit, and water bottle. Of course normal things like my wallet, date book, chapstick, car keys, etc…needed to fit in it too.
I walked up and down the mall, hit all the hip stores (Aeropostle, The Buckle, AnchorBlue, PacSun, Industrial, etc) looking for a small bag. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for so it was difficult to get help. I left the mall after hitting all relevant stores (i.e. not toy stores if you get my drift). I decided to go to REI. They’d have non-purse bags that were hopefully not backpacks.
Now, I had to be careful about walking into REI, because I’ve got an addiction to that store. REI to me is like crack to a crack whore. S.E.R.I.O.U.S.L.Y. I never walk out of there without spending massive amounts of money. I’m willing to say that I could live in REI and be perfectly happy. That’s how much I like REI. It’s just the essence of the store and all that it encompasses. If I could marry a store, REI would be the store I married. Sorry, got carried away there for a moment.
Bags. I spent an hour in REI in the bag section looking over all my choices. There was everything from Timbuk2, Sherpani, The North Face, Eagle Creek, Haiku, etc. There were bags of all choices. Most of them, I didn’t like. Many of them were to big. And then there was this one that I fell in love with.
It’s a messenger bag. It’s maybe a little bigger than I’d like, but it’s not overly big so I went for it. I walked around the store for quite some time with it on to be sure that I could handle the idea of a messenger bag as opposed to my usual backpack. I wore the white one around the store because it was the only one. And then I added the black one to my shoulder and wondered around with both of them. And then because I couldn’t make a decision on whether or not I wanted black or white. (The black was kindof blah in comparison to the white, but white gets dirty easily.) I took them both up to the counter and asked Drew (the cashier who always checks me out) what color. He said black, so I bought the black one. And I love it!
The backpack has been replaced.
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