A month ago, I heard a clatter behind me as I was walking out of the University Center. I looked back. An ipod. White. I looked up, nobody there. I picked up the ipod and turned it over to see if there was an engraving, wondering whose it was.

I don\’t do windows, it said.

My ipod! Mine! I spun around to put it in my bag. More clatter. The rocks and dice for my game design assignment fell out. The Adidas backpack I had bought before coming to CMU had a hole in the bottom. How it got there, I don\’t know. That backpack was meant to be the last backpack I was ever going to buy. Some $80 worth.

I am now on a search for a new bag. Should I mature and buy a messenger bag (who has backpacks nowadays?) Should I get another backpack? I certainly don\’t want to be mainstream and end up with a timbuk2 bag. No more gray or black. So I have been spending the last few hours researching. Jack Spade? $200 leather bags? Fashionable bags? Queen Bee bags? Snap Design bags? Acme Made bags? Ebags?

I don\’t know anything about makeup or hairstyles. But my laptop has got to look good and I\’ll make sure of it.

Then I realized CMU design students also make their own. Ok, but where can I buy one?