Dear Internet,
In all the excitement of the last six months, I forgot to mention something big:
We bought a cabin.
If you would have told us 15 years ago, when we were living not quite hand to mouth in San Francisco, one day our lives would be 180 degrees from it was then? We would have thought you were lying. I think we both would have recognized we would have end up with good lives but to the baller extent we’re apparently living up now?
Inconceivable.
And yet, here we are.
Today is our third wedding anniversary and to celebrate, we’re heading up to Throbbing Cabin to open it up for the summer. The cabin needs a lot of inside work (more like it needs to be gutted), it has no furniture or working appliances, but it’s on 1/2 acre of land, 5 minutes from five miles of white, sandy beach, and we’re in spitting distance of all the awesome places in northern Michigan.
And it’s all ours.
x0x0,
Lisa
Now the drugs don’t work
They just make you worse
But I know I’ll see your face again The Verve, The Drugs Don’t Work
Dear Internet, Ritalin, Concerta (32mg and 54mg), Adderall, and Focalin.
To give you a brief idea of the foray into my brain has been like, in the last five months, I’ve cycled through the above and received well documented and undocumented side effects for my efforts. Focalin, the latest drug, pushed me to the edges of paranoia, anti-socialism, and rapid/cyclic impulse thoughts.
I would not classify myself as being an introvert or extrovert, I seem to be fluid between the two, but on Focalin in social situations, I was always scamming to get a way out. I would wall myself up internally so that even the most banal small talk would be difficult. I would come off as standoffish, an asshole, or just plain weird.
People in my space made me nervous. People taking up time I had allocated for another task, irritated me. Music, I realized today, was not listened to because of depression, but because it moved the focus to something I didn’t deem as being important instead of allowing me to work on the task at hand.
I was sharp around the edges.
We could have the most innocent of conversations and I would take great umbrage at any perceived slight I felt thrown in my direction. Then I became hyper-sensitive to this behavior and had to monitor all written and verbal conversations to make sure I didn’t fuck shit up.
All of this defense and protection is exhausting.
Being crazy is exhausting.
Tonight I told my medicating therapist I took myself off of Focalin, and as of the Tuesday, I’ve been free of legal meth for 5 days. I’m still on lithium and will remain on lithium for as long as I live, but for now I need a break from the ADHD drugs. At least not take them on a regular basis.
He agreed.
The medicating doctor thinks this is all rapid signs of over stimulation. I am not going crazy, well not at least yet. The doses I was on for all of the drugs were of the lowest dose available. Ritalin works, but on occasion and for a few hours, and any attempt to prolong the drug doesn’t work. Good when I need to work at home or want to sit down and write, but I don’t think, at this time, I want to be on an ADHD drug permanently.
Since I’ve built my own coping skills on managing ADHD all these years, although haphazardly, I’m going to research for resources of tried techniques to help compensate so that the Ritalin will be last case use, not first in hand. I’ve also started my meditation in the morning to calm my mind.
In the last five days, the amplified symptoms have calmed and started to leave. Now I hope to find only peace.
x0x0,
Lisa
Dear Internet,
In April of 1996, I wrote downpour on my soul in feverish moments that physically lasted days but mentally felt like hours. I still remember my bedroom set-up, the empty bottles of diet Coke around me, and the towering ash trays. When completed, the piece spanned 47 hand written pages, single spaced. downpour on my soul is a stream of consciousness I put together about my internet relationships that had existed up to that point and the one that I was starting with a crazy South African boy named Andrew.
I was 23.
This was the first piece I had written specifically for the internet. This is what started my online confessions.
Nearly two decades later, I’m Facebook friends with Matt, Chad, and Andrew. I still talk to Mark pretty regularly. Summer of 2011, Miguel tracked me down (third time in last six years) and wanted to finally get married over 20 years after we had begun. The fact I was already married had never entered his mind. Bryan and I would meet the summer of 1996, when Patrick and I road tripped to Toronto. Bryan and I would end up dating, and one night he would fuck me while I slept. The breadth of vocabulary for rape would not exist then, but I remember the unease of being around him and the eventual breaking off. Bryan would continue maintaining up until 2000 or so I was the woman for him. He later married and had a family.
These are the now capsules of the lives of the men I loved.
In a lot of ways, not a lot has changed.
Through the many server, URL, and CMS moves over the years, most of my archives are no longer alive on my server space but all of them can be accessed via the Wayback Machine. While I’ve been working steadily for the last few months getting the old content back up, it’s slow process. I cannot remember the last time downpour on my soul was freely available online on any of my sites until now.
I left the piece in its original state – grammar, spelling, and other atrocities alike. While I had thought of moving some of this content into book form after the import was complete, for now everything in its chaos remains.
I love 23 year old Lisa.
I’m not saying that just because she was me, but because of her fearlessness, restlessness, strength, intensity, and tenacity. 23 year old Lisa would have done anything to carve out a better life for herself, or at least, carving out a life that made her happy. She was also crazy enough to try anything at least once but not crazy to the point that would have put her in harms way. When I’ve stumbled upon pieces written from that period, I marvel at her ability to land almost always land at her feet no matter what is thrown at her.
A lot of 23 year old Lisa has passed down through the years, even if it’s in milder forms. She would have been pleased as punch to know she went on to finish her bachelors and then two master degrees, get a well paying job, and have a decent life. Her anger at lack of creativity in our world would be tantamount in my current state of well being, but I already know that and that is something I am aiming to fix.
I am honored to have been 23 year old Lisa and the choices she has made that shaped her life. I hope you like her too.
xoxo,
Lisa
Dear Internet,
When I wrote up my packing list for my trip to MSP, I was surprised to find many others were also into minimalist packing. In 2014, either TheHusband and I or myself and a few girlfriends, are planning a trip to UK/EU for a few weeks. These packing run throughs are perfect practice to prep for those trip(s) as I never ever want to have a 67lb bag snapping at my ankles again. Notes from MSP
When I flew to MSP on the morning of March 19th, Grand Rapids was being kissed by a blizzard. This changed my shoe options as originally I was going to go with a pair of wellies and pack my Docs in the carry on. Instead, I busted out the winter boots I had just bought for next year and wore those instead. The catch with the winter boots is they require me to sit down and untie several rows to slip off whereas I could just slip the wellies off while standing with little trouble. I walked around in my socks quite a bit for this trips.
However, getting through TSA was awesome! Flying through GRR has the big advantage of short TSA lines and easy drop off/pick up. Even with the swapping of wellies to snow boots, I merely used five bins to unpack my laptop, iPad, boots, belt, coat, and bags to push through the scanner. From drop off to gate was completed in under 10 minutes. The bag fit perfectly in the overhead compartment and the messenger slide with ease under the seat before takeoff and could be easily reachable after.
Upon arrival to MSP, not having to pick up luggage at the luggage carousel when we landed was startling at first because this is what I was so used to doing. After getting over myself in a few seconds, I was out of the airport and into a cab in short order.
Here are additional thoughts on the process:
The 3D Organizer Cube was not quite big enough to host all the items that fit into a quart plastic bag. TheHusband kept insisting that as the cube is wider and has more depth (plus it was designed with TSA in mind for the 3-1-1 purpose), it should hold the exact same amount as the quart plastic bag I grabbed from our kitchen and measured. He was wrong. I opted then to use the 3D Organizer Cube to hold random toiletries such as tissue, wipes, and eyebrow scissors and kept the quart bag for the pure liquids, such as shampoo, body soap, conditioner and etc.
Make up bag was carried in my messenger bag, such as it was my purse for the trip and there was no qualms either in MSP or GRR going through TSA. But I’ve heard make up is hit or miss depending on what airport and TSA agent you get. Your mileage may vary.
What to put in the quart bag became the question of the ages and didn’t leave me with a lot of options for mixing, primarily with the fact I use three separate lotions (face, hand, body) and could only take one. I opted for body, which didn’t work well for my face. I need to reconfigure this bag.
Pete unrecommended the often told recommendation of scouting out local places to go to buy toiletries when you arrive rather than packing them up. And I have to say, I agree. In the US, hotels typically have shampoo, conditioner, body soap, and lotion in the rooms easily available.
The Packing Cube Shoulder Bag was a great idea to use as a smaller purse, while doubling as a packing cube, but I never got around to using it as a bag. I did like the idea of using it for unmentionables for packing which then the cube could be re-used to store dirty laundry.
I left my wallet behind and put my cards and cash in the teal clutch, which worked great and was less bulky (and streamlined two items into one). This was also helpful when going out in the evening, I only had to grab the clutch and go. I also left behind the sunglasses, since it was not going to be particularly sunny in MSP and this saved space as well.
I packed two journals (one for personal, one for work) and my pencil-case. I <3 my pencil-case but I only needed a few pens, pencils, and my good fountain pen and sharpie or two and a flash drive. Leaving the case behind would free up more space. I could also leave one of the journals behind.
I like the messenger bag quite a bit and some of the smaller pockets on the outside were perfect for packing up small cords, ear buds, and other small items. For some reason, I really miss the fact there is a giant zipped inside pocket. Now granted, this area would be where I would put the smaller things just mentioned but I like having a large zipped pocket to keep things safe(r).
Should have brought a paper book with me, which I’ll do next time. While the flight is short, much of the time was spent with no electronics in effect for take off and landing, and I should have brought a book with me. I picked one up at MSP airport on my way out-of-town and now will be packing a book with me with all travel.
It took a single flight for me to fall in love with the new to me concept of traveling minimally. Overall, I feel this was super successful experiment.
x0x0,
Lisa
Dear Internet,
363 days ago, I wrote a post about how I wash my hair and it became a viral post on my site, and lead to many great discussions on Facebook and Twitter on how people care for their hair. (Hot topic, who knew?)
In that year, my hair has gotten longer, the color keeps changing, and the style is still more or less the same. Evidence: Lisa circa early 2013
But there’s been some issues – the two surgeries straightened the hell out of my hair. I can’t get a curl to save my life. It’s gotten heavier with length, which is understandable – I have a lot of hair, but I can’t do a lot of cute hair styles because my hair always slides out of pins and other hair accouterments. I shed A LOT, and my new habit is I’ve started dribbling food in my hair unexpectedly which makes for fun when dining out with friends.
When I finally got a chance to see my stylist a few months ago, I was wavering back and forth on cutting my hair. And by cutting my hair, I mean something similar to the below image of me, circa late 2006:
Lisa circa late 2006.
According to my note on the image page, I went from similar length then as I am now to that cut in two cuts and kept it short for three years.
Obviously, I chickened out.
And here we are.
I’ve been going over pros/cons again on cutting it for the last few days, started adding more images to my hair cut Pinterest board, but I still find myself with no concrete decision. There is no value to me in keeping it long other than it is the one thing TheHusband would really like for me not to change (but as someone whose own hair goes to his knees, he knows the value of having control over one’s own hair). With the long hair, I have no need for hair product and I only wash it once or twice a week at best. Short hair would be more upkeep, but I feel like I could have more fun with it.
When this posts, I’ll be in the middle of my appointment so we’ll see which direction I took and it might look like something like this.
x0x0,
Lisa
Dear Internet,
And so, here we are.
What started out last summer as a support ticket to my web host provider for site slowness has become a farce of epic proportions. Here is the timeline:
In the summer of 2012, open up ticket for site slowness
Web host provider claim other sites that live on the server my domains are located on, plus the random DDoS attacks that were occurring during the same time on the server, are reason for my sites slowness. Web host provider suggest I get a VPS to clear up the problem. (Note they did not offer to move me to another server cluster, which would have more than likely fixed the problem.)
Domains are moved to the VPS. VPS configured with Apache, MySQL, PHP (Web host provider’s default setup.)
Less then a month after the move, my sites become almost inaccessible. We discover Apache is randomly spiking the memory and CPU. The randomness doesn’t give any clues nor is there anything in the logs.
To clear the spikes, we have to restart the VPS. Sites become accessible for a few hours and then the spikes start all over again.
Inbetweenest the spiking, my main domain is infected with an injection hack. Three separate times. After each hack, I use WordPress best practices for site security as well as web provider’s list of security recommendations. Yet, I was hacked two more times after the first.
When I opened up a ticket with the provider about the hacking and I had followed their best practices AND WordPress’ for security, they told me there was “nothing they could do.”
Web host provider cannot diagnosis the problem or provide a fix/solution with the Apache issues. All they do tell me is to move over from Apache to Nginx, another web server software provided by the provider.
The change over to Nginx is seamless and the spiking immediately stops. As does the injection hack attempts.
End of December 2012, all of my domains start throwing up 502/504 errors. I open up ticket with the provider and the errors almost immediately stop. I’m told to clear my browser cache and DNS cache on my computer in the future.
502/504 errors come and go most of January 2013 and into February. Sometimes they get so bad (like hours without access) that I have to restart the VPS to get it going again.
I open up a ticket in mid-late February as my sites has been inaccessible that no matter what I do (restart VPS, clear caches), unload plugins, nothing works. While I care that my sites work, it’s becoming more of an imperative in having a working portfolio in April to hand in to my boss.
No one responds to my ticket for 8 days.
When I get a response, the person responding used http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ to verify site connectivity and wanted to close the ticket. Site was apparently live when they did it because when I got the response from them, the sites were dead again.
When I respond back the sites were down again, and had been down, the support person’s response was we needed to have supervisord installed and running to kill any PHP processes that were just hanging. Supervisord was installed but not configured and the only way to configure that was adding a user to the VPS as root and configuring it ourselves, which we did per web host provider’s instructions.
TheHusband installs supervisord and gets it configured, and the 502/504 errors do not end. We respond to the ticket and we are told the only way web host provider will look into this if we disable supervisord, remove the root user and then they will reconfigure and manage supervisord.
We do as they request and in the interim, I am told the sql server is in the wrong cluster. This is surely the problem and why we are getting all the 504/502 errors.
My SQL server is moved and nothing changes.
Web host provider configures supervisord and nothing changes
Support then recommends I turn on PHP XCache Support in our domain control panel and install W3 Total Cache in WordPress to help
W3 Total Cache had a vulnerability discovered in it in December 2012 that was immediately fixed and updated. My domain had the updated version but was hijacked by script kiddies for the same vulnerability (so the plugin has another vulnerability hole in it) within hours of installation. I was notified by Google Webmaster, within hours of installing the plugin, my site was no longer secure. After turning the plugin off, and cleaning up, I opened a ticket with provider for their security to verify my site was clean. The support person(s) verified the site was clean, ventured a guess the whole problem with the 502/504 errors was the W3 Total Cache plugin, so they suggested in addition to uninstalling the plugin, I also clear my cache and everything will be right as rain. I pointed out this was an ongoing issue that was known for months and had nothing to do with W3 Total Cache, which I had just installed for the first time a few days ago. Transfer me back to regular support.
Original ticket for the 502/504 errors (not including previous slowness history) was opened on February 12. As of March 30, there has been no resolution or solution.
During that period, nearly 70 emails were exchanged by me and support — most of it having to remind them they already told me X solution and it didn’t work or providing them with data to back up my problem. Every time a tech suggested I “just clear my browser cache” as there was “nothing in the logs,” they got an email from me with data of users from around the globe who were getting the same 502/504 error. Every time they suggested I go to Apache, I point to the ticket from them telling us to move from Apache to Nginx because they couldn’t fix the Apache spiking errors when I was on Apache.
During all of this, TheHusband noticed a couple of things:
The provider never offered to move me to a new server or cluster, the default response from them was for me to move to a VPS and once on the VPS, up my memory (aka, to get more money from me)
The VPS is crippled. You have zero control to update any software (Apache, Nginx, PHP, whatever) nor can you do any configuration that goes outside of what the provider allows (which you don’t find out until you try to do thing)
Even having root access on the VPS, which should give you full control, doesn’t. That too is crippled and some functionality is stripped.
CPU and memory usage should be minimal on site like mine, but when the 502/504 errors were not going on, they were spiking. Running top on the VPS showed nearly 50% CPU utilization with web services turned off, so nothing should be running and yet here is 50% CPU utilization. Since that is all controlled by the web provider, we could not clean it up or turn off unnecessary services that were eating away at my CPU/memory usage.
Fed up with my caterwauling, TheHusband set up a near identical site at a new provider’s VPS, migrate the content, update the DNS, and get EPbaB running fairly quickly. TheHusband was also able to update and optimize PHP, Nginx, and WordPress as that was not allowed at Dreamhost and swapped us from MySql to MariaDB, the open source solution, for the database. After we got everything up and configured, he ran structured packet queries against both sites. The result? Host provider had 93% packet loss while new provider had 0% packet loss.
TheHusband also calculated the current provider could not handle more than 1 connection a second, where as the new provider can handle 5 times the load – on the exact same set up.
We’re moving the remaining three domains over in the upcoming weeks, then I’m canceling service.
The last email I got from the provider, from March 30th, gave me a long spiel of apologies and trying to make this right. It was similar to an email I had received from someone else at support that told me, “502/504 errors are normal” a few days earlier. Both suggested I move to Apache, which would solve all my problems.
Apparently neither of them read the ticket history, though they both claimed to have done so.
There are so many levels of frustration going on, it’s hard to figure out what to fight and what to let go. I have been with this web host provider since April 2003. A decade of service and loyalty, so much so that my referral kick backs meant my monthly bill was pennies. Shit just worked. Up until say, 2010, I never had to open a damned ticket with them. Then it got progressively worse.
I would have held on for loyalty and the years of great service by this provider, but the constant defending or reiterating ourselves on what we did (95% of the time specific directives by the provider), the miscommunication of the support team, technical negligence, the often patronizing tone of the emails (“It’s no a problem with us, it’s a problem with you.”), coupled with you had no idea what line of support you were with or even who you were talking to was the final straw. My sites don’t generate a lot of hits, and I am okay with that, but they should work when I need them to work.
And so, here we are. New provider. Snappier site. Everything working. I have an awesome husband who not only got the site up and running, but was able to fix all the gaping security issues he couldn’t fix on the older provider because it was locked down.
Now, the world is starting to look better again.
xoxo,
Lisa
Dear Internet,
It’s evening hour here at Throbbing Manor and Game of Thornes is about to start soon, and then Vikings right after. I had plans to complete various types of work this weekend and the shows were to be my present for jobs completed, but that did not happen and I have to find a way to be okay with unplanned failure. Failure is such a harsh word, but I am not sure what else to call it? How do you explain you’re so overwhelmed with things, you feel as if you’re drowning? Simply by writing it? It airs it in public, sure, but it does not help alleviate the feeling.
I have found myself in often the predictable role where I throw so much out to the heavens, expecting very little to come back, but here is it is – a nice fortress of things for me to hide behind. Then this is coupled with frustration when the things you want to succeed but for whatever reason, fail. A current example is I reached out to the local library system to work with them on joint projects since they are a block away from MPOW. The projects were all free or paid for by grants/somewhere else — and, they rejected them all. How do you, as a public library, reject free programming that will not require resources (or very little resources) from you?
Then there is frustration’s and overwhelmed’s sibling, discouraged making an appearance. Outside of my home life, I feel like I don’t get the support I need or require, because I’m a pawn in someone’s game. This sounds like I’m wearing tin foil hat time, but there is a level of truthiness to those words. Some of it is professionally related, some of it is personally related, but I just have not been wanting to deal with the world lately and everything is suffering.
I’m trying to figure out how to cope, but I don’t feel like I’m being successful. That sends in a whole set of emotions on the failure of success.
After what seemed an eternity, we’ve got EPbaB moved to a new host. I’ve written up a post about the hows, whys, and process, which is getting published on April 2. I fear to post anything on April 1 for it might be mistaken as some elaborate ruse. (Not tin foil hat time here either.) I’ve started cleaning up posts from the LiveJournal migration I initiated a week or so ago, and sometimes, the past just needs to stay buried.
xoxo,
Lisa
Dear Internet,
This past week has been hellacious.
When I came home from my conference super late Thursday night, I found out TheHusband had thrown his back out (he’s feeling MUCH better now), which coupled with my exhaustion from prepping, traveling, and attending the conference prompted me to stay home on Friday. The last year has been rough as all the up/down with the drugs and surgeries has wrecked unexpected havoc on my person, so even a three day trip with a one hour time difference throws me. Dr. P. has often talked to me about the body’s memory and our idea of what we think we can handle and what we can truly handle. Sometimes you need to rest and pull back, even if your mind says otherwise.
In trying to find a way to decompress, I started working on a project I started over holiday break: Importing all old diary/blog content into a single site. We’re talking hundreds, maybe thousands of entries spanning nearly 20 years. With the continuous issues at EPbaB and no defined time frame for the final domain move, it was going to be sketchy moving the content to it in its current condition. But, exporting data out of WordPress is easy and if I can get as much of it into EPbaB before we do the final cut over, I’d save myself hours and hours of time.
Even despite the time saving, there is no easy or direct way to do this – some if it is in plain text format, some if it is importable via another host provider, some if it was grabbed from SQL tables. I started working on the SQL table stuff first, as TheHusband was kind enough to dump it all in a text file for me. This is a tedious job, for I have to do the following:
Paste the content into the text side of the editor
Add title in title box
Strip out all wayward “” that randomly appear throughout content
Strip out “rn” which should be appended at the beginning of all returns (between paragraphs, typically) but are also apparently random
Adjust date/time of post, as it will be backdated
Turn off auto-posting to LiveJournal, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr
Check to see if entry was cross-posted to LiveJournal in its first posting and use LJ to check for tags used, to apply to this posting
Lightly edit (spell check, grammar)
Once post is published, unlink broken links found (if any) and add post to list on Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes to highlight
(TheHusband commented some of the above could be accomplished by a global search/replace, which is true. But I would still have to manually edit each entry with date, title, and so on.)
Friday and Saturday, this system worked out okay. EPbaB remained relatively stable but it’s slow going. On Sunday, TheHusband and I prepped for the week ahead and I didn’t get a chance to work on the site until much later in the day. As I was getting a little bonkers from the previous methodology, I decided to see if I could invoke the import LiveJournal tool within WordPress.
That was a huge mistake.
The import tool stops after importing $X number of entries, which it won’t tell you what the max is but you can find out by the number count of your posts. (It’s about 100.) Secondly, you can’t choose which categories, tags, or any other formatting will be applied before the import. It just chooses something and runs with it so after the content is imported, you still have to manually change each and every entry. Thirdly, the entries it chooses are random. I had some things from 2002, 2004, and 2008. The import, in turn, created nothing but an even bigger mess since the entries are random and I have no clue or idea what it pulled.
But why am I doing all of this?
My brother from another DNA, John, often lives a curiously parallel life to mine and while we may not often talk, our influences often tend to be the same. He recently, unbeknownst to me at the time, decided to undertake a similar project and listed his reasons why:
Because badly formatted, dead linked stuff – like much on this blog at the moment – just looks amateurish. Things will, eventually, look neater and consistent, and also hopefully fulfill my OCDs around the numbers 3 and 5. Speaking of which:
To remember. Good times, bad times, things of use I’ve forgotten, and so I don’t make the same often dumb and easily avoidable mistakes.
To remove repetition. I keep writing the same things over and over. As well as looking a bit odd, it’s a complete waste of time. Note to self: learn how to improve memory.
To see if there’s any really good stuff. Stuff which can be put into another format or media e.g. an ebook.
To look for opportunities for making a living that I’ve missed.
To have a much more efficient infrastructure, and platforms, for adding content online in the future. And to make myself come up with a damned good reason for starting to add content to the Internet somewhere else.
Very eloquently and succinctly, he lines out all the reasons I’ve found myself struggling with over the years and could never quite express. The first half of point one is incredibly important to me. Second half of point one and all of point two are me in massive volume. Points three and four are going to become important to me in the next year plus for numerous reasons and I’m always looking at point five as the proverbial monkey on my back.
I did find out today, despite what I had written earlier, a time line for when the domains need to be sorted, which is April 15. That is when my portfolio will be due so that is when everything must be working on the back end by. The content will more than likely not all be transfered by that point, but hopefully I can come out of exile and go back home!
x0x0,
Lisa
This day in Lisa-Universe in: 2009 (and again in 2009), 2004
Dear Internet,
I am a notorious over packer. (And I blame this on having been a Girl Scout – I am prepared for EVERYTHING.)
For our honeymoon in 2010, TheHusband and I travelled to Europe for nearly three weeks. After researching and planning, we purchased a lime green clamshell three piece luggage set with intent to take the two largest pieces with us. In addition, we each had our own messenger bag and I had a purse. We did laundry in the bathtub of our hotel room in Brussels half way through our trip as we had planned. We hardly bought any souvenirs. I think a Swatch, a few tshirts, a hat.
At Amsterdam airport, we were charged $150 USD for having overweight luggage. “Can you pack some things somewhere else?”, the airline person said helpfully. No. No, we couldn’t. Our messenger bags were bulging, our luggage was bulging. What in the sweet name of Satan happened?
In the spring of 2012, I flew to England, solo, for a few weeks to visit friends and see some concerts. In an attempt to not repeat the honeymoon incident, I tried to pack as sparingly as possible. I was bringing over items for friends, which I anticipated was going to be weighty, but I didn’t anticipate coming back with even half the number of items that filled that space.
Weight of my suitcase going TO England: 67lbs. Weight coming BACK from England: 71lbs.
This does not include my purse OR my tote bag filled with enough electronic gadgets and gewgaws to entertain a small nation.
Once arriving in England, I had to schlep my shit on the Tube from Heathrow to center of London, then to the south east of London where Karen lived (and so to apparently do dragons). When it was time to leave for Alice and Jon’s, I schlepped all my shit solo again to King’s Cross to catch the train up to Biggleswade, except a wheel had broken on the bag. When they met me at the train station, poor Jon almost killed himself carrying my crap to their car. No matter how much I thought I was paring down, I could never get my luggage light enough with only useable content.
Overweight surcharge when I left England for those 71lbs? £125 or about $190 USD.
And it wasn’t just plane trips, but any kind of trip. A train trip to Chicago in 2012 for two conferences I was attending that were right after the other, almost had me in tears at the Amtrak station. My duffle bag was over 60lbs, plus my tote bag, plus my purse. I had bought so much shit at the second conference, I almost bought a second duffle to drag all my treasures home but my clever repacking saved me.
While trains do not have weight limits or luggage limits, travelling solo with a 60lb duffle bag, plus a jammed tote bag, and a purse is just as frustrating. Even more so when the luggage areas in the train are filled with other people’s possessions or you’re blocking traffic getting up to the second floor because you can’t physically carry everything at once and you’re relying on the kindness of strangers to help you. (Thank you kind strangers.)
After my final trip last year, I decided I had enough. I was no longer going to pay outrageous luggage surcharge fees, or find myself in a situation where I couldn’t handle my own bags because they were so heavy.
While I was laid up last summer, I became obsessed with the idea of traveling with less. And found a sub-culture based on the idea of packing less and creating packing lists that catered to just about anyone.
While the curation of a list varies from person to person, there seems to be agreement on two things:
The gear should be light weight and multifunctional
Items should have multiple purposes
I decided I had a new goal: Next time an opportunity arose where I needed to travel, regardless of by plane/train/automobile, I was going to do it with a carry on and a messenger bag. That was it. No excuses.
Towards the end of 2012, early 2013, my conference dance card was beginning to fill up. Starting March 1 and ending July 2, I would be attending seven conferences and speaking at four of them. Some of them were one day affairs or held locally, so there would be no need to pack, but the remainder would require travel either by plane/train/automobile.
This was perfect.
I asked around on the social sphere what did people use for travel? The number one response was: Tom Bihn. After spending hours of reading packing lists on the Tom Bihn site and the internets, I knew I found my bag.
Since all but one of our combined luggage pieces (purchased together and what we had before we got married) had fallen apart or were in the process of falling apart, TheHusband and I were in the market for new luggage. He was intrigued by my research and reviews, so for Valentine’s Day he bought me the Aeronaut in Aubergine/Wasabi with the Absolute Shoulder Strap. The idea being if the bag was as impressive in person as on the site, we’d pick up accessories and pieces as needed later on.
The bag was incredibly impressive in person. The Absolute Shoulder Strap worked with TheHusband’s 6’6 frame comfortably, the backpack straps also were comfortable over his 52″ chest and shoulders and could be adjusted to fit my measly 5’11” frame. There was a lot of thought to the organization of the bag, such as the generous central area bookend by two external, fairly large pockets. Overall, it is very well constructed and designed.
A few weeks later, I bought the Imago in Plum/Olive, 3D Clear Organizer Cube in Azalea, large Packing Cube, and the Packing Cube Shoulder Bag in Wasabi.
Here was my thought: The Aeronaut would be the one piece of luggage, with clothing organized by the large Packing Cube. The 3D Clear Organizer would act as the container for TSA’s 3-1-1 rule. Instead of carrying a purse and a messenger bag, I would use the Imago as the messenger bag and use the Packing Cube Shoulder Bag as a packing cube until I got to my destination. Then I would use the Packing Cube Shoulder Bag as a daytime bag since I can dump all my smaller items from the messenger bag into it. For night time events, I have a clutch, that is very thin and flat, I always bring with me so I was covered for purse needs.
On Tuesday I fly to Minneapolis for Library Technology Conference and return home on Thursday night. I need to sort out clothes for Tuesday as the travel day, plus the two days for the conference, and maybe an extra outfit. Plus pajama jams and other clothing accouterments, then add in toiletries and sundries.
Below is the Aeronaut and the Imago, fully packed for Tuesday’s trip. Weight of the Aeronaut: 15.2lbs. Weight of the Imago: 9.7lbs. (Weight of the pug: 20lbs, but she’s not coming.) The Aeronaut and Imago. And a pug.
Now the fun part! Let’s unpack the Aeronaut and see what’s inside!
Packing cube with two pairs of pants, a tunic, leggings
Bra (I’ll be wearing one and bringing one.)
Doc Martens, which are my dressy shoe (One of the few pairs I can fit into post-surgery)
Two t-shirts, pair of yoga pants, and a long sleeve t-shirt
Belt, glasses in case, curling iron
Drugs, toothbrush in case, prescription receipts for said drugs
3D Clear Organizer filled with non-liquid toiletry sundries (According the site, the 3D Clear Organizer was built specifically for 3-1-1 but I could not get the same amount of items from a quart bag into the Organizer.)
Loofah in a plastic bag, lady time essentials in the drawstring bag
Plaid pencil case, teal clutch, assorted Air adaptors
Packing Cube Shoulder Bag, that will hold four pairs of panties, three pairs of socks, a scarf, and a tank (and the aforementioned belt)
Pug paw.
Over to the Imago:
Macbook Air in case
iPad 2 in case
Business card holder, Epipen, plus “What to do if Lisa has an allergic reaction to LONG LIST OF ALLERGENS” from my allergist.
Quart bag of liquids! All your usual sundries here.
Sunglasses
Makeup bag and bag of Lactaid/benadryl. The TSA’s stance on the website about makeup is vague, so instead of using precious quart bag space, it’s in its own bag as it always is. I only use mascara, gloss, and liquid eyeliner so it’s not like there is a lot. The makeup bag also has Tylenol, glass cleaner, and few other sundries.
iPhone/Pad USB cable with wall wart, ear buds, work ID badge
Moleskin
Wallet
Two pens, two liquid pencils, stylus for the iItems, ratty nail file, even rattier hair pick
Pug making her move.
Total weight of both pieces: Roughly 30lbs.
And I still have room for another complete outfit or two in the Aeronaut.
Missing from pictures: Phone (used to take said pictures), strap for the Packing Cube Shoulder Bag, charger for my Air, coat (I’ll be wearing it on the airplane), hat/gloves (see coat), boots (see coat). Granola bars. Small jewelry bag (I leave off all my rings/earrings/necklaces until after I get through security).
On Tuesday, I’m wearing a tunic, tank, leggings, and a cardigan that goes with all my other outfits. I have a pants outfit and a tunic outfit planned for Wednesday and Thursday. I also packed an extra pair of pants and two t-shirts so if I’m not feeling something, I’ve got options.
I had planned on wearing dress boots that went with everything and only bringing that one pair of footwear, but I can’t fit into them post-surgery. As snow is on the horizon, I’m wearing my green Hunters on the plane and packed my Docs as the dress shoe since they have foot traction. The Hunters work with both tunic outfits and pants outfits.
As much as I love my plaid pencil case, I’ll probably leave it home and only take the few pens/pencils. I’ll probably also leave behind my sunglass case.
I’m bringing the Air and the iPad as the conference is requiring us to bring our own equipment for presentation (the Air). The iPad is going to be the reading/gaming/entertainment machine with better battery life.
My goal is to do a packing list entry for every trip to see what changes from trip to trip. But if I can pull this off, you have no idea how pleased as punch I will with myself.
x0x0,
Lisa
