backpacking through space

When I started my public space project I first was going to camp out in the aisle at the Tuesday night 10pm showing of The Fighter(comforter, sleepmask, pillow, pjs and all), unfortunately my friend "just had to" make a stop at Korean BBQ next door and when we got there approximately 5 minutes late the ushers said they were all full. So I decided I would use one of the components of my first plan (the carrying case) to executed my plan B, using my heavy-duty backpacking backpack as my school backpack all day. The only flaw in this plan was I only have 1 class on Wednesday's and as I was running late for it today so my mamoth bag only got a little facetime around school. So I decided to head to the library later to give the poor old bag some more attention.

PJ's before class

en route to the library

Bills Bus riders...ahh. They. Were. Great. So many of them looking at my fancy backpack making comments like: "Are you going to France or something?", simply "What the fuck" or "is she homeless?"

All things said and done I was a little surprised with the reactions I got. I definitely got weird looks, lots and lots of them, but it was really hard capturing those looks on film without freaking people out. I suppose people reacted the way I would have if faced with a girl carrying a backpack half her size, with waste-clips and straps galore around: silently judge and think it very odd, but really pay no mind.

Ultimately I came to these realizations:

• In the daytime if you choose to wear a gargantuan backpack people think you are an oddball and look at you funny but really could care less.
• In the nighttime however(especially in the distance between IV and the library) if you wear dark clothes and a gargantuan backpack you suddenly become a homeless person to people from a distance and they like to further distance themselves from you.
• If you have only ever gone to the library at night during finals and expect lots of people to be there second week of the quarter you are wrongly mistaken.
• Waste-straps are really cool. If you ever think "oh no I have no pockets to carry my phone and ipod. what do i do?" no worries humongous backpack waste-straps have all these great cubbies to hold your stuff all while giving your shoulders such a nice break.