Forty clowns in a car

The awfully overpriced cool backpack with wheels has been purchased. So tonight's primary project was to actually pack it. Why pack so early, you might ask? I'm actually hitting NYC for a week (primarily work-related) before flying out, so assuming I find somewhere to do laundry right before I leave for Italy, what I bring to Manhattan will be what I bring to Rome.

Already had purchased a guide book, but on DM's advice, I checked out Rick Steves' site. He's got some good tips on there, and he goes on and on about packing light, packing light, packing light.

Then he provides his manifesto suggested list. Which has 57,364 things on it.

Oye.

So I go down the checklist, trying not to think about whether his suggested amounts of various clothing will be enough, but rather whether they'll all fit in my bag. And I already have most of what our buddy Rick says I'll need, partly due to a fun little drug store donation from my sis and sis-in-law. And lo and behold, I managed to fit everything in the bag.

But the question of whether it's enough still haunts my soul and threatens to rip apart the space-time continuum as we know it lingers. Of course, I've been known to overpack (I used to bring a couple dozen CDs with me places -- thank god for MP3 players), so my perspective here is skewed. Still, it reminded me of one fateful day in Storrs, Conn., back in the early '90s (or as Mike might say, the late early '90s)...

My brother's dorm at UConn was within walking distance of home, so one day I meandered up there. I was hanging out with Mike and, I think, his friends Kevin and Scott. They started talking about laundry. Kevin asserted that one pair of underwear could be worn for four straight days -- the normal way, backward, inside-out and inside-out/backward -- before needing to be washed. This discussion went on for a while.

I asked, "So this is what college is like, huh."

The group response: "Yeah, this is pretty much it."

So, based on Steve's suggestion, I packed five pair. And based on Kevin's theory, that should get me through 20 days.

Which leaves me a couple of days short. Damn Kevin and damn Rick Steves. Does nobody know anything about underwear?!

Another debacle.

Where I'm not going …

Oh, and Scott, I'll be careful.