Trivial Inventory

Travelling to client site Monday thru Thursday is actually not too bad. There's no doubt: having to start out the gate by waking up at 5am and dragging your luggage and your tired ass through the airport until you plop yourself into a crammed seat on a commuter flight to get a bit of a shut-eye is brutal. There definitely are other low points on this whole road warrior thing (flight delays, for one), but overall, once you get the hang of the routines, you just kinda put up with it mindlessly.

Another low point that I was reminded of this week is having to stay in a different hotel every night while you are on the road. This week, by a combination of scarcity of hotel rooms in Providence (some dumb convention -- the enemy of travelling consultants), screwed up reservations and project obligations, I ended up staying in a different hotel every night this week: this Blog entry was made possible, courtesy of free Internet access at the fourth hotel I'm spending the night in this week.

Having to pack twice (once on Sunday night, then on Thursday morning) and unpack twice (Monday night, Thursday night) is not too bad... having to pack and unpack every day for six days in a row in a week is a killer; you are truly 'living out of your suitcase.'

Current content in my travel luggages this week:

Laptop bag (Codi):

• 1 laptop + cordless mouse + laptop adaptor
• 2 issues of Wired Magazine
• 1 issue of Entertainment Weekly
• 1 issue of Fast Company
• 1 copy of WSJ
• 1 Mont Blanc Meisterstuck pen (black)
• 1 PaperMate mechanical pencil
  
• 13 Claritin-D pills
• 1 20GB iPod + iTunes + Sony earphones
• 1 PSP
• 1 Moleskine notebook (personal journal)
• 1 Journal book (work notebook)
• 1 256MB USB memory drive
• 2 mini-bottles of mouthwash (1 from JW Marriott, other from Westin)
• 1 Motorola bluetooth mobile phone headset
• 1 pack of tissues (from Red Roof Inn)
• 1 can of Altoit Smalls
• 1/2 pack of Breath Savers
  
• $2.84 in coins
• 2 binder clips
• 1 Pentel 0.5mm HB
• 2 bunches of keys (home, rental car)
  
• 4 ID badges (1 for my company, 1 current client, 2 past clients)
• miscellaneous cab, hotel, rental car receipts
• 4 company expense envelopes
• 2 books (Good to Great, Perfume)
• 2 random newspaper pages (one with articles on wine country, one with comparison shopping websites)
  
• 1 wallet

(damn, no wonder my bag weighs a TON!)

20-inch Luggage (Dakota):

• 3 dress shirts (black, white, pink)
• 2 pairs dress slacks (black, brown)
• 1 belt
• 1 pair of jeans
• 4 pairs of dress socks
• 4 pairs of boxers
• 3 white shirts
• 1 gym shirt
• 1 gym shorts
• 2 athletic socks
• 1 casual t-shirt
• 2 polo shorts (white, grey)
• 1 toiletry bag (misc toiletry items)
  
• 1 electric shaver (Norelco)
• 4 chargers (mobile phone, PSP, iPod, mobile phone headset)
• 1 book (40 Days and 40 Nights)