Packs

I’m ashamed to say it, but I have a problem. Unlike other troubles, my problem has no support group or 12 step process to assist me, so it is difficult to discuss with others. There is no pill that I am aware of that will cure my condition and I am uninformed of any treatments. My problem is that I collect backpacks. Oh sure, laugh if you will, but this is serious. I have more packs than President Bush has aides (insert Team America song here) and more bags than Imelda Marcos has shoes. It started off with a blue Nike gym bag I use to carry my schoolbooks in back in junior high. It progressed to a gray/black backpack in high school, followed by a rucksack in my college years. Towards the end of my formal education, I purchased a nice green Timberland carry on bag for weekend trips around New England and if I remember correctly, I was even issued some gray luggage and a garment bag. I think the real origin of my current predicament was the purchase of an expedition size violet blue gear hauler from REI. At almost 6,000 cubic inches, I could carry all of my worldly possession, or a small pony, on by back. I sewed an American flag on the top of it and started dreaming of hiking some distant mountain range with pots and pans dangling from the various straps. Things got progressively worse after “Old Blue” as I had to purchase another backpack (in case anyone wanted to help carry my pots and pans) and a duffle bag to store the stuff that wouldn’t fit in my backpack (like food for the pony). There were stuff sacks for my sleeping bag, waterproof bags for wet-weather canoe trips, compression bags for my clothing and “dity” bags for the little stuff. After I took up biking in the mid 90’s, I purchased a CamelBak, and when I deployed to the desert (of the Texas border) I was given another CamelBak as a gift which could haul more than just water (which I now use all the time for my mountain biking adventures). Because I fit the Asian stereotype of having a lot of cameras, I in turn have a lot of bags for those cameras, not to mention the multitude of carriers I have for my other electronic possessions. There exists a picture in my photo album of the entire 10 foot length of a walk in closet in my old apartment completely lined with backpacks of various sizes and shapes. I’m not sure why I hung them all in my closet, but since I had more packs than I had collared shirts, it just made sense to put them there.

I could sit here and try to justify having all of these bags by stating that they all have a purpose... which is what I think I’ll do. Seriously, they all have a valid reason for taking up space. In fact, they are the reason I rented a bigger storage facility before I deployed. I use every single bag because each one is used for a particular mission. I might not use all of them all the time, but like a woman who has shoes for every occasion, I have a sack for every situation. Am I going to the gym and need something to carry my stanky clothes in? Got one for that. Maybe I want to pack my breakfast and lunch for work. I got a big blue soft sided cooler bag for just that. An overnight business trip to Indiana or Arizona? One of my many daypacks should suffice. How about a trip to the gardens by the lake? Well, you can’t carry a camera, tripod, two water bottles, lunch, sunscreen, glasses, a blanket, spare batteries, a multitool, car keys, first aid kit, and a Frisbee in a plastic Wal-Mart bag, can you? Oh I’m sure you could, but only if you hate your fingers so much as to cut the circulation off from their tips after carrying that load around all day. Plus, you'll look a little ghetto.

When I was activated for deployment here, I was issued 3 big green duffle bags, a 4,000 cubic inch rucksack and frame combo, and a smaller camouflaged assault bag. However, 5 bags weren’t enough for me and my trailer now holds 2 more duffle bags, a civilian 2,700 cubic inch day pack (for my civilian gear), a tricked out olive drab laptop bag (just in case you need your computer during a fire fight), a black Air Force flight bag (I don’t tell anyone that it’s an AF bag to avoid ridicule), a large parachute gear bag (not that I plan on doing a lot of jumping out of airplanes in the near future), a CamelBak backpack (with attachment pockets, of course) for my daily gear, and a hygiene bag that doesn’t carry much more than a toothbrush and a razor.


What made me start this whole rant was that I just ordered two more packs online to be shipped to me here, and I’m even debating about acquiring a third one. One is small enough to carry my laptop (to keep it separate from my sweaty gym clothes in the morning) and the other is for my essential gear when I am out on missions and don’t want to lug around my pseudo assault pack. The third one would be used to house the expensive digital camera I’m debating about buying, and you know, I’ll HAVE to purchase the camera if I have the perfect bag to put it in.

I need to stop. I have the reputation of being a “geardo”, which is the polite way of saying that I’m a person who has a lot of “stuff”. While I collect cool gadgets and things that generally make life more interesting or easier, backpacks and bags constitute the largest part of my personal inventory. I need some sort of intervention to make me see that I really don’t need all of these backpacks. I can get by with one or two and make my life less complicated and cluttered. Sure I might sacrifice the convenience of having a place to put every item I own into it’s own protective case, but I think I can survive. At the rate I’m going, I’ll have to purchase another bag just to take the bags I’ve acquired here home!

Speaking of home, today marks the one quarter mark of my deployment. That means I’m 25% done with my stay in lovely downtown Baghdad. Has it gone by fast or slow? I’m not sure. There are times when I come to the end of a week and wonder what happened to the last 7 days. Unfortunately, these times are few and are overshadowed by long days at work and the occasional bouts with homesickness. That’s okay though. On those days when I’m particularly down, I just console myself by purchasing another backpack to carry my junk around.