Traveling Ever More Lightly

When I flew to Lousiana to bring my mother back to Las Vegas around the middle of October, I'd just gotten my new HTC Touchpro 2 and thought I'd try making the 4-day trip without my laptop. I still had the 6.5 pound Dell and I just didn't feel like lugging it around anymore if I didn't absolutely have to. I could check my e-mail, rss reader, twitter and textsfromlastnight.com from my phone, as well as any maps I might need. I figured those were about the only things I couldn't go 4 days without. And I was right.

Only, the day after I got back, my right middle finger felt like it was broken for over a week. I couldn't figure out why until I picked up the stylus for my phone. Um, yeah, waaay too much time online with a tiny screen.

Still, it was so wonderful to travel superlight, with just a tiny carry-on and my purse. It felt like freedom.

Both of those items were extremely cheap and bought years ago. I believe the duffle bag is actually decades old.

But the phone as a main computing solution was just not going to cut it, even for short trips, unless I wanted to totally kill my hand. So I was more determined than ever to get a netbook. I had...or, at least, thought I had...the luxury of time and was waiting for some models to become available when I suddenly found myself without a laptop.

My older daughter decided to move to New Orleans and actually moved to New Orleans all within just a few days. (Yep, I'd trained her well. *Wiping tear from corner of eye*) And I gave her my laptop.

I'd actually bought the pink laptop to give to 6 year old for Christmas last year, but she didn't seem quite careful enough to be responsible for it. And, to tell the truth, she still doesn't. She's been using computers since she was 3, but she's a very rough little girl. However, I finally realized that she will probably always be very rough and it so happened they were without a laptop, so I gave it to them.

Which meant that I was dependent upon the ancient desktop in my daughter's bedroom. My younger daughter, with whom I live, who goes to work at 6 a.m. and has to be in bed by 9 p.m., leaving me with my phone until I went to sleep hours later.

But, first...I finally gave in and got a Kindle. It may be several months - at the very least - before I board a transatlantic flight, but the lure of an international Kindle was too much for me to resist. I should have given it a post of its own so I could go into raptures over how much I love this device and verbally kick myself for not getting one sooner but, suffice it to say that it has become my constant companion and went a big way toward easing the pain of losing my laptop.

For a while, my phone and Kindle were all I needed to supplement the time I spent on the desktop dinosaur. But I never stopped trying to figure out what I was going to do about a permanent computing solution. It was going to have to be some combo of netbook and larger laptop, but I didn't want to commit to any of the combinations I was finding available.

Until...

I found an ad for a cheap refurbished netbook that I thought I could live with until I made up my mind about what I would do permanently. What made it most attractive is that I could get it bundled with a very slim, inexpensive external DVD drive, which I desperately needed if I was going to be buying netbooks and notebooks with no optical drives. Well, that and the fact that it was red!

Side question: When we will finally be rid of disks? Both my phone and the DVD drive came with disks. Of course, it may be that they are both also available online as downloads. I know that the Quicken program I bought is and, to this day, I can't remember why I didn't download it instead of buying the stupid disk. I am kind of afraid, though, that I'll get stuck when I change computers and not be able to re-download stuff that I've paid for.

Anyway, I am now in the happy position of being able to fit all of my tech in a smallish handbag and I find that both thrilling and amazing. What's really weird is that this purse seems to have been made with my tech needs in mind. Look at this:

There is a small outside zippered pocket which is perfect for keys, lipstick, etc. - small stuff I need to access often and quickly. I'd love to put my phone in there, but I don't want it getting scratched up by my keys.

Then there is the main zippered compartment in the middle where my wallet, phone, glasses, etc. belong. It's big enough to put a small brush, my camera and other things if I need to.

What is so cool, though, is that there are two open pockets on either side of the main zippered compartment. They are perfectly sized for items that are about the size of half a sheet of paper. This is where I put my itinerary and rental car info when I travel, to access quickly whenever I need to. But NOW, my Kindle goes in one pocket and my netbook in the other! And there's still plenty of room for my travel docs with the Kindle.

And, just for good measure, there is another small zippered compartment inside one of the open pockets. This is for small items I don't use very often, but are very important, and I want to keep them securely out of the way so they don't accidentally fall out when I'm taking stuff out of the larger areas. These are mainly my aircard and flash drives, but I will often put my camera there instead of the larger compartment.

So this is what I'm traveling with these days.

My (RED) netbook. It's an Eee PC 900HD, which I will post about later. My Kindle, phone, aircard and flash drive.

Seriously, I could travel the world with no more than this, for a very long time. And it all fits in my purse!!!

My goal is now to assemble a wardrobe that will fit into the duffle bag. I've already got several pieces that are lightweight and non-wrinkle, and I will soon begin a quest for more - plus some slightly heavier warmer pieces. But my tech is in place and I have the perfect container for it.

So, when I finally do get to the point where I'm ready to book that transatlantic flight, I will be freaking ready!

Well...almost, anyway. I will have to figure out what I want to do about international Internet access while traveling. But there's time yet for that. In the meantime, I will probably have at least 2 domestic round trips. And they will be a breeze compared to how I've always traveled, which was not nearly light enough even though I've rarely checked bags in the last several years.

Finally, I've almost got it all exactly as I want it.