I was looking on the Air New Zealand web site yesterday trying to find information about luggage and carry-ons. Since I have a stopover in Auckland on my way to Sydney that is only an hour and a half (which I’m sure will end up being shorter), I wanted to just carry my bag on with me. I have a roller bag that is easily within the limits for carry on baggage. Generally, when I travel, I hate to check my luggage. On every flight I’ve ever taken (with the exception of Horizon’s tiny little planes), you can carry on a roller bag AND something like a purse, small backpack, computer bag, etc. The web site said purse, computer bag, but didn’t include a small day pack. I thought I should call the airline to verify. Their web page was right – no day pack. So I either get to a) pack lighter than planned and put my day pack INSIDE my roller bag, or b) check my larger bag and carry on my backpack. I don’t know – hour and a half layover on an international flight? What do you guys suggest? And what’s the big deal? Look how big the f-ing plane is!

Over the weekend, I finished reading Paint It Black by Janet Fitch. Fitch, who also wrote White Oleander, seems to be adept at detailing the lives of young women in Los Angeles. Paint It Black tells the story of 19-year-old Josie Tyrell, teen runaway and sometime art school model. Despite Tyrell’s tragic childhood, she has found the love of her life in Michael Faraday, Harvard dropout turned painter. In the first chapter, Josie receives a call from the L.A. County Coroner’s office asking her to come identify Michael’s body. The book, set in very early 80s Los Angeles, hits the ground running as Josie’s life begins to unravel in the wake of Michael’s suicide. As she tries to cope with and understand her circumstances, she becomes enmeshed in the life of Michael’s mother, a woman Michael despised, who has always hated Josie – but now, Josie is the only thing left that belonged to her lost son. The two forge an interesting and odd relationship. Like White Oleander, Paint It Black is captivating and a story well told. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in some time, and I highly recommend it.

The song of the day is “Wait” by White Lion off their 1987 breakout album Pride. This is yet another one of those one-hit glam rock songs that I can’t help but crank up and sing to when it comes up on the iPod (it almost never comes up on the radio anymore). They never had much success after this song and video hit it big on MTV. As a side note, I’d like to point out here that when I looked up the band in Wikipedia, the article started out by saying “This article is about the band, for the big cats see 'White lion.'”