I’m sure that every woman, at some point in her life, has had this problem. You’re going away, you want to be comfortable (and stylish), but your suitcase is only just so big. How do you fit all your wonderful wares without incurring extra baggage fees?

My answer?

A TRIPOD CASE.

No, wait, seriously. We’re leaving for Fargo tomorrow, for a long 16-day shoot, and in addition to my clothes I also have to find steerage for 5 Anton Bauer batteries, 36 DVCPro tapes, a 4-battery charger, and my sweet yellow boots. Enter the unlikely solution.

See, the tripod kind of rolls around unless you add some padding, and in the past I guess we used bubble wrap or some such nonsense. But I guarantee that my MSUM sweatpants provide better insulation than any plastic protection, and, if one is bold enough to leave one’s clothes loose inside, the case can easily stow a week’s worth of apparel. This was put to the test on our last trip, when I packed all – ALL – of my dirty laundry in with the tripod. Imagine my delight when it came back with a TSA inspection sticker… those poor, poor government workers, sifting through 7 days of used socks and underwear.

So exercise judgement, I guess. But the tripod case is currently saving my life.