Could someone versed in practical fashion put together a packing list for attending a two-day summer college orientation?
Ground rules: must fit in standard sized airline carry on luggage. As this thread may remain interesting for some time, the carry on luggage must follow the just-announced “optimal size:”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/10/carry-on-bags-smaller-flight-guidelines_n_7545096.html
Include toiletries, medication and shoes in the list. Assume participants will have to deal with both excessively air conditioned spaces, as well as excessively not air conditioned spaces.
MoWC, it’s a shirt with a tardigrade on it! They are some of the most amazing creatures on the planet, able to survive over 10 years without water, in temperatures well above boiling and close to absolute zero. They were even sent into outer space (in 2007, I believe), without any protective environment (oxygen, etc.) and were able to survive there as well. Pretty amazing!
Boy there’s a lot of hyperbole and reductio ad absurdum going on here. I used the phrase “college town zone”, and “gym shorts”, and was clearly being a little light-hearted. I did not say my DD would be running around Beverly Hills in her underwear.
Go out for Ramen or Thai in and around the UCLA area and you’ll see plenty of kids in super casual clothing, and probably none of them in their underwear. Ditto UC Berkely, ASU, and UA, other college towns I’m familiar with. YMMV.
Oh good lord, don’t make this difficult. She needed to swap out one pair of gym shorts for longer shorts or a pair of jeans and needed to have one of the t shirts be something that could look a little nicer so it could be double duty. Done. This is not something that requires an advanced degree in packing or checked baggage. Don’t start with some oh my god how could anybody ever fit this in a carry-on bag nonsense.
That is an awesome phrase, “reduction ad absurdum”. I am so going to find a way to use that one on my husband! I’m on my way to LA today (Manhattan Beach), and will check it out for you. In fact, I probably am going to go running to the beach in my gym shorts, and might even stop in somewhere for coffee or a cold drink AFTER running on the beach. I might even be sweating as I enter the shop. The horrors!
Given that I routinely pack for 7 to 10 day international trips in a carry-on - where I’m wearing business casual in front of clients - I’m sure someone can figure out how to pack for a weekend in a carry-on. @@. If they can’t, they’re an idiot, unless they have some extenuating circumstances like medical equipment they need to carry on them.
Then there’s the other side of the spectrum. This summer in Italy, s2 got turned away by the restaurant maitre d’ for wearing tailored walking shorts. Were still trying to work out whether the objection was the length of the pants, or that the shorts were pink.
the whole point of this thread is not about packing more things. It’s about having the common sense of choosing options that work both up and down the scale.
Let’s make it a boy for the sake of argument.
Boy 1 packs 2 t shirts, 2 pairs gym shorts, 2 pairs sneakers.
Boy 2 packs 1 t shirt and 1 polo shirt, 1 pair gym shorts and 1 pair knee length cargo shorts, 1 pair sneakers and 1 pair topsiders or similar.
See how this works? Boy 2 still can be equally as casual for his run-around-campus days, but his options can go a little nicer if needed, if everyone decides to go to a movie, out to dinner, etc. It didn’t take one iota more of packing space.
For a girl, it could be ensuring that 1 t shirt falls under " nice," the second bottom is a pair of longer shorts or capris, and maybe her second shoe is Toms or a sandal. Or instead of two sweatshirts she packs one sweatshirt and one little sweater.
This is such common sense.
The buildings were FREEZING at our orientation on Friday at an Ohio school. I decided it was a ploy to get us all to go to the bookstore to buy new warm college wear. Worked on me - proud owner of a new 1/4 zip sweatshirt!
What state is the orientation in?
Right. That’s the other reason I think it’s not very smart to only have 2 pairs of gym shorts and nothing else. It would seem to be common sense that you’d want a longer option. Things can turn cold. Buildings have a/c. It could rain.
Don’t know if spellchecker got you, BD, but it’s “reductio” - just in case you run into the pronunciation patrol while in your gym shorts. In public. With a bead of sweat. An heaven knows what with your hair.
Just because some kids might hang out in Westwood (UCLA) in gym shorts, doesn’t mean I’d advocate my kids not take one ‘something extra.’ And certainly not to make some point. Westwood also doubles as a bit upscale. UCLA is plunk in a very high rent section.
PG said it all with, “swap out one pair of gym shorts for longer shorts or a pair of jeans…one of the t shirts be something that could look a little nicer so it could be double duty.” (Or lighter summer pants.) How hard is that- both in terms of packing and not betraying some odd insistence you can only “be yourself” when dressed way down?
Why not buy a college sweatshirt? First thing mine did when they got their letters. Worst case, you carry it on the plane home. If there’s some objection to bringing one (bulk,) so bring a long sleeved tee or similar.
Girl 2 can even fit in an extra pair of gym shorts, if she’s the sort who wouldn’t be caught dead in the same exercise bottoms twice. (Though some of this thread makes me wonder.)
Summer is easy, Periwinkle, clothes are light.
“Don’t know if spellchecker got you, BD, but it’s “reductio” - just in case you run into the pronunciation patrol while in your gym shorts. In public. With a bead of sweat. An heaven knows what with your hair”
Yes, my spellcheck changes reductio to reduction. Apparently it’s a rarely used word. And if I’m going to say something like that, I’d better say it right! Especially if I have sweaty hair.
In fact, I probably am going to go running to the beach in my gym shorts, and might even stop in somewhere for coffee or a cold drink AFTER running on the beach. I might even be sweating as I enter the shop. The horrors!"
Yes, because there’s absolutely no difference between popping in to a coffee shop during the day when you are ten feet from a beach, and getting dressed to go to dinner in a nice sit down restaurant with tablecloths and candles and waiters and a wine list!
I might even go to the nice Italian restaurant by my hotel in athletic wear, at least one of my stretchy athletic tops. After I stop swearing, I guess. Seeing as I’ll be seated most of the time, I’ll bet they are as pleasant to me as they always are.
Haven’t read the whole thread but enough to give me a chuckle. My D2 is a “fashionista” athlete and the only tee shirts she wears are for running. She is always dressed up and makes me feel under dressed! She packed sun dresses and gauzy type tops with dressy shorts for her orientation. That said, it wouldn’t bother me if someone visiting was under dressed. Not my issue.
Swearing, haha.
Yesterday, I almost admitted what I had on. I would have won the award of the day for “cared the least.” But I was working from home.
’
Maybe we should switch to talking about jewelry, what’s appropriate with gym shorts.
“I might even go to the nice Italian restaurant by my hotel in athletic wear, at least one of my stretchy athletic tops. After I stop swearing, I guess. Seeing as I’ll be seated most of the time, I’ll bet they are as pleasant to me as they always are.”
Why would you have expected them to be less pleasant to you if you were dressed too-casually?
My reasons for not wearing athletic wear out to dinner have nothing to do with other people. It’s a standard I set for myself.
Oh my God, I need to use my reading glasses! Too funny!
I promise I won’t swear in my gym clothes. Unless I trip.
There’s another dilemma, what jewelry do you wear with gym shorts? I always wonder why ladies wear jewelry when they are running track events. In the Olympics.
“Maybe we should switch to talking about jewelry, what’s appropriate with gym shorts.”
Ha! Well, while I was dressed in a very unimpressive t-shirt, khaki shorts and Tretorns for my son’s move yesterday, I still had on diamond stud earrings (because I rarely take them out), still wore my engagement ring and a sapphire ring I wear everyday, and was wearing a tank watch. Because those things go with pretty much everything and they didn’t need to come off, since I was neither camping nor planning to roll in mud.
I can’t be the only person whose parents used the concept of “go-to” clothing / accessories – things that go with pretty much everything, no matter what.