World Traveler....One Weekend at a Time

On Monday I am going out of town for "business". I'm going to Chicago for a flavor class offered by a flavor house. It's a pretty cool deal. The class is known to be very educational and a beneficial thing to do, but it's free. My company is paying for the flight and hotel (at a significant discount, thanks to the flavor house) and the flavor house pays for transportation from the airport to the hotel and to the class and back again. I'm really excited. I've wanted to do this for a long time, and I've finally got support to do it.

So the other day I got an e-mail from a lady at the flavor house about arrangements and plans. It all sounded good (a limo!) until I read that after the second day of class we would be taken from class straight to the airport, so we would need to check out in the morning and bring our luggage with us. Bring our luggage with us? That would mean that everyone would see my luggage.

Now, really, my luggage is quite servicable and does its job quite admirably. It holds my stuff together when I need to take it with me. (But so would a trash bag.) It's a set that I got from JCPenny's about 13 years ago for Christmas. It's floral tapestry, and well, a little old school. Only the giant suitcase has wheels, and they're certainly not the in-line-skate wheels used on luggage today. Up until now, it didn't matter much. I didn't do a lot of traveling, and I didn't travel professionally, and didn't need to worry about anyone seeing my luggage. But this is different; I might make contacts here, or at least meet people I might run into later, and I'll certainly be a representative of my company, and I'd like to make a good "put-together" impression.

No problem, right? Target has luggage. They'll have something that will do, right? Oh yeah, bay-bee. They did. I had to order it and pay for 2nd-day shipping, but I'm oh so glad.

I love pink and brown, it's fun but classy. And look at all those compartments!

I particularly love those elastic-top compartments, because it's kind of retro. It makes me think of the kind of luggage they would have had in the 40's. I've always wanted to carry a hat box.
And that little plastic zippered bag snaps in and out! How convenient!

But here's the best part:
Very modern, very "professional traveler" wheels.

So I'll be Classy McSassy with my new 'do and my new wheels. And it's a little smaller than the maximum carry-on size so I won't have to be one of those people trying to shove a big suitcase in those little overhead compartments. That seems like such a pain. I know I'm tempting the gods here, but I've never had a problem with my luggage getting lost, and I like to travel light, so I usually carry either a purse only or a backpack that will fit under the seat in front of me, and check anything else. It's so much easier to be self-contained than to have to pray for an open overhead compartment. Plus, I'm always traveling alone and don't have anyone to watch my stuff, so the less stuff I have to haul into the bathroom and through the restaurants and everything the better.

Anyway, there are two more pieces that match, a small tote and a larger 21" carry-on. The collection is new, so I'm going to keep an eye on them, and either I'll buy them on sale or clearance or someone can get them for me for Christmas.

Now I just need to decide what knitting to bring, and where to put it in all of those compartments. I'm going to have a LOT of free time in the airport especially.

p.s. I did the drawing for the Operation Big Chop Incentive Yarn, but I haven't heard back from the winners yet about which yarn they want. When all the winners and prizes have been finalized, I'll post them.