Greetings! It’s odd to write this newsletter, because I have silly/funny things to say about random life stuff, but I also want to acknowledge that the world still feels frightening, filled with trauma and sorrow and suffering. So, although I cannot actually leave my worries behind, I will be heading soon to a warm climate, and I promise to do my absolute best to relax with my family. I feel grateful and fortunate that we can travel like this and get away for a little while.
But, to do that, I will first have to pack a suitcase.
December is the perfect time of year to discuss the dreaded and complicated topic of packing a suitcase. There’s so much to say about this subject that I had a hard time coming up with just one title for today’s newsletter. Alternatives included How An Overpriced Piece of Luggage Can Actually Lighten Your Load! and Stop Checking Your Bag and Start Improving Your Sanity and, naturally, Keep Calm and Carry On.
My metaphorical journey toward changing my physical journey began this summer, when I headed back to Los Angeles for a week, this time to help move Andrew into a new apartment. Per usual, I cursed as I packed my suitcase. My bag just doesn’t make sense. It’s a two-sided hardback case that was an impulse buy from TJ Maxx and looks cool, but, like, doesn’t work. I’ve never known where to put things so that they don’t fall out when I zip open the bag - for instance, like in the lobby of Atlantis Paradise Island when you are told your room isn’t ready but you want to swim NOW so you try to just grab the swimsuit from the top of the luggage…and out flies a bra and a curling iron. On the marble tile, in front of everyone standing in line to check-in.
The other issue with my suitcase is that it’s slightly too big and must always be checked at the airport, adding extra time to an already long day of travel. So I headed to LA in August with my sh*tty luggage and experienced MPE (Major Packing Envy) as I saw all of these smartly dressed people wheel their mini-bags around LAX. I dreamed of a day when I, too, could carry on.
I desperately wanted to change from a shlepper into a jetsetter, but how? The mindset shift alone was mind-boggling. How do people travel across the country - or even just to New Jersey - with everything they need folded into a teeny-tiny 22 x 14 inch space? Workout clothes and booties and dresses and hair products and body products and skin products and pajamas? Dare one pack a sweater?! It’s sorcery, I tell you! Sorcery!
The first step towards treating a problem is acknowledging that you HAVE a problem, and I was ready to readily admit that I had one: I like to overpack. It makes me feel safe to have an extra pair of jeans and a cute-top-alternative to the cute top. The next step was to face the problem head-on-ish by not necessarily packing less, but just packing smarter. So I purchased packing cubes. Revise that: compression packing cubes.
They really are amazing, compression packing cubes, like a Miraclesuit™ for all of your clothing, just sucking that tummy right in and making your luggage look ten pounds lighter! Through a combination of rolling my clothing and some kind of complex underwear origami, I managed to fit everything in without having to sit on the suitcase. And that’s when I knew I was ready for the next step: a smaller suitcase.
After extensive research, including asking everyone I know what luggage they use and what the pros and cons were of said bag, I decided to treat myself to the mack daddy of carry-ons, the groundbreaking and slightly-too-expensive bag that paved the way in 2016 for all the other carry-ons to follow: Away luggage. It’s stylish, it’s sleek, it’s recognizable, and I am nothing if not loyal to name brand recognition.
In October, two days before my next trip to Los Angeles, I went to the Away store in Boston’s Seaport district (which is a super-fun-and-happening spot, btw, with a Porter Square Books that carries my novel, shameless plug), and picked out my new luggage.
And for just $10 more, I was told I could get the luggage tag personalized, so I did. I’m happy to say that the choice of monogram color and font only took several texted photos and one phone call to my mother.
Away’s Bigger Carry-On Flex is the biggest carry-on legally allowed on an aircraft as long as you don’t Flex the Flex part. Flexed = Checked.
The Flex part - a zipper that when unzipped creates an extra 2.2 inches of space - is handy for that hypothetical return trip from Europe in which you overstuff your body on pasta and your wallet on Prada. I hope someday to make that trip a reality.
But, in the meantime, I packed for the October trip to LA and successfully carried on - and off - the plane! It was really fun! I felt very organized and somehow much more chic, even though I wore the same jeans, sneakers and sweatshirt that I always travel in.
Disclaimer: this is not - and I repeat not - an advertisement for Away luggage. However. Should Away want to send me a gift card/reimbursement/free stuff I am certainly open to it. For my next book tour, I would also really like a matching one of these, please, preferably also monogrammed in silver:
But there’s time for that, since I’ve only written 30 pages of the new novel so far. You know what else there’s time for? Unpacking.
Because, as much as I now like to travel in style and pack the perfectly curated suitcase (for 4-7 days away according to Away), I am still very bad at another part of the process, namely unpacking. When I get home, it can easily take up to 4-7 days for me to fully unpack the suitcase and move it out of the middle of the bathroom floor. As I tell my husband Brett, who has to step around it on the way to the shower, what fun would it be if I was perfect?
At least I now carry less baggage than I did when we met.
Wishing you a merry everything and a happy New Year. Safe travels this holiday season.
xo
Julie
PS: For those of you who have been following me for some time, you may remember that in the newsletter called June is for Shmoozing, I talked about packing that other suitcase for book events, and how there was just no way I’d ever carry on. Well, look at me now, June. Look at me now.
PPS: For Hanukkah, Brett also got an Away suitcase, and the kids got very nice but substantially less-expensive knock-offs. And Away we go!
I love Away! I have yet to downsize to a carry on, however- I have the Large which admittedly makes me look ridiculously extra no matter where I go. The Everywhere Bag is truly everything, both for travel and I often use it as just a day bag for my laptop etc. It fits under an airplane seat too! Woohoo!
I could chat luggage all night- safe travels and Happy Hanukkah!
Hi Julie! I bought a Monos last year -- very similar brand to Away -- and I'm obsessed. It completely saved me when I travel. I don't know why I put up with my old junky suitcase for so long! xo.