I checked my suitcase the last time I flew, and it got crunched and slashed good. Which means I need a new suitcase. It has to be a large suitcase, a sturdy suitcase, but not a suitcase about which I will care, since it too will eventually get crunched and slashed good. Such is the fact of checked suitcases. I have several lovely suitcases which I shall never check on a commercial flight. They are for car trips. Or trips taken by train. One is black and as big as a coffin. It's a Diane von Furstonberg. The other, from Liz Claiborne, is gray and tufted. They were both impulse purchases, bought because we had so many Christmas gifts to take home on the train. That's my modus operandi, it seems, since I once bought a suitcase because I'd done so much Christmas shopping in Savannah. It was navy, an American Tourister me thinks, and I packed it to the brim with gifts for my little guy. Then the next time I bought a suitcase was in Bologne, when the blue suitcase broke. Now this time, for the first time in ages, I will do research, I shall contrast and compare.
As for my beat-up suitcase, I don't blame the airlines for this suitcase abuse. It comes with the territory. As awful as flying is these days, I am grateful to live in a time when we can fly. It always feels like a miracle, Leonardo da Vinci's prognostications notwithstanding. UPDATE: By coincidence -- you know I love coincidence! -- here's a fantastic piece on shopping for a durable suitcase from Conde Nast Traveler's The Daily Traveler! "Durable" is the operative word!
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