Surviving the Airport, Pre-Departure Tips: Part 2 - Morgantown, WV

If you read the first Surviving the Airport post, you're probably well on your way to becoming a savvy traveler. You're dressed for success with your comfortable, functional clothing and ready to hit the airport. Right?

Wrong! Ask any girl; it's not just about the outfit. You need to accessorize!

Gotta-have Handbags: Fashion before function, I always say, but forget the Louis Vuitton clutch at home. Strut the jet-ways in style with this season's hottest weekender-bag. Weekender bags are pretty standard; you are looking for a small-medium duffel-like bag. And forget the roll-aboards, they are soooo last season.  As a weekend warrior, you need the space that those wheels and handle take up, and trust me, the stiff, boxy frame on your roll-aboard just doesn't compliment that slender figure of yours.

Every girl has to have the carry-all, Big-Ass-Bag. For a larger, checked bag, I recommend The North Face Base Camp Duffel. The fabric is water resistant, durable, and highly visible. It can hold enough clothes for 2+ weeks. If it is lightly packed, most airlines will let you carry it on, and on top of all that, it solves the worst part about duffel bags - the fact that you have to lug them around - by adding backpack straps. Doesn't match your Jimmy Choo pumps? Take the roll-aboard. There is little shame in toting a roll-aboard, if it is checked! 

Earrings that bling: Classy, pearl studs or big, gaudy hoops? Minimalist ear-buds or big, in-your-face headphones? A girl's gotta have her pearls. Yes, I know; big, flashy, colorful Dre Beats or the ever-so-slightly more subtle Bose noise cancelling headsets are what’s hot for the under-25-with-too-much-money crowd. Even if you’re wearing the gaudy headphones to send the signal that you’re not to be talked to; trust me, putting in your iPod ear-buds will give Chatty Cathy in the seat next to you the impression that you want some quiet time. As a bonus, you can toss them in your carry-on without worrying about damaging them, and when that fateful day comes when you do forget them on the plane, ear-buds won't break the bank like those Beats or those pearls.

Well-kept woman: This is the time to be the girl that has it all. The shiny new phone, the moleskine planner, the e-reader, snacks, chapstick, gum. Sorry to disappoint; no poorly drawn parallel here. Bring your smartphone, journal, Kindle, iPod, and every other creature comfort that you probably already have crammed in your Long Champ handbag. Use that 4 hour layover in ATL to your advantage and catch up on your reading, jam out to some Ingrid Michaelson, or work on that new year's resolution to write in your journal, all while enjoying that trail-mix or cliff bar that the airport security-god was kind enough to let you keep.

Ever heard, "There's surviving, and then there is living." Survive the airport with the bare minimum: hand-me-down luggage and that Vanity Fair magazine that you picked up at the last minute. Or spend your travels living by carrying your stylish weekender bag, blasting hip music through your ear-buds, and killing layovers and downtime with your tech savvy time-wasters.