juldea: (raverkitty)
[personal profile] juldea
My almost six-year-old backpack has almost bit the dust. Multiple parts are being held together by safety pins, one pocket has torn off completely, and the drawstring closure for the top broke off. It's getting close to time to replace it.

I'm pondering going the messenger bag route this time, on account of the fact that I now know myself to be susceptible to lower back injuries. I am not sold on this idea, though, and it will definitely require some store visits to try out how they feel before buying anything.

There's one ideal that I have in a bag, and that is convertibility from my carry-everything-in-the-day-while-hanging-out bag to my just-the-essentials-for-going-out bag. Ideally what I want and haven't been able to find is a messenger/tote/backpack that has a detachable purse. Right now, my purse is inside my backpack, and that makes it a slight hassle to get at if I need to, say, get my wallet out. I've been told that this might not be as much of a hassle if I get a messenger, though, as it's easy to swing in front of you in a way that a backpack isn't. (I'm dubious of this, however, because when I'm NOT wanting the bag to swing in front of me, I really want it to stay put. This seems the backpack's domain.)

I'm also torn between getting something cute and colorful and sporty like a Timbuk2 bag (I see those things everywhere) and something more sedate and serious. I know when I was working at the hospital, I felt really out of place wearing business casual with my purple backpack slung behind me. These days I'm not working in a business casual environment, but I could again someday, and perhaps I want to think about my bag being able to blend in well there, too.

If someone has advice, experience, or knows of a removable-purse bag they can point me towards, have at. This is a Big Deal to me. ;)

on 6 Aug 2007 21:31 (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] juldea.livejournal.com
Thank you for the very useful, informative post! I will check these options out. Tom Bihn is one of the websites I visited today, but I definitely want to look and examine these things before purchasing.

on 6 Aug 2007 22:18 (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] hakamadare.livejournal.com

say when :) i’m home most evenings.

-steve

on 7 Aug 2007 02:22 (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] juldea.livejournal.com
So, further notes:
1) I will want to view these in real life... and will get to you sometime on when that can happen!
3) Perhaps a bit much for my needs. :)
4) It is a long day after not much sleep but that website just confused me, throwing out photo terms that I can't match with my reality. I will try again sometime when I have more patience for it.
5) So originally, the Chameleons really thrilled me. The more I think about it, though, the more it doesn't actually solve the current problem I have, just turns it into a different layer on the first problem. As I have describe to chaiya below, my "bag" needs to be something larger than purse-sized, as I tend to carry around multiple things - sweatshirts, knitting projects, books, etc. Hence the Chameleon would just be another item thrown into the top of the bag, say, and as it isn't self-contained I would lose most of the items in bag movement/settling/shuffling. The solution to this is to put the Chameleon in a purse in my bag, adding another layer of difficulty reaching my stuff. However, this does solve the problem of going from "backpack casual" to "purse dressy" as I would only need to buy a "dressy" purse to put the Chameleon in when I switched out.

Complexities!

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