TIMBUK2

A basic Timbuk2 messenger bag, $60-$95 depending on the size.

About 12 years ago, David Letterman devoted one of his "Top Tens" to "Things Arnold Schwarzenegger Would Never Say" and somehow conned the future Governator into reading the list aloud. It was a classic Letterman shtick, silly and lightweight, and yet it included a line that I use to this day, sometimes in absolute earnest: "It's not a purse. It's a utility bag."

I've carried a purse — er, utility bag since 1992. I started carrying a bag even before I was a working journalist and really had need of one; it's almost as if I somehow predicted that I would need to carry around all manner of crap in a few years. When I got my first bag, a No Fear backpack of blue/green grunge-era flannel, all I really needed to carry was my current reading. I filled the rest of the bag with bottled water, boxes of Chips Ahoy cookies, compact disc folders and the occasional sleep-over girlfriend's, er, personal effects.

Today, I need to carry my notebooks, phone, camera, MP3 player and recorder, business cards and so on. My current bag does the job, but still, I miss the days when my friends could ask, "Hey, you got any cookies?" or a girl could ask, "Do you have the bra I left at your place?" and I'd magically pull the goods from my bag. I felt like Mary Poppins.

Well, by God, you don't give up that Mary Poppins feeling without a fight. A few weeks ago, I decided to recapture that first-bag feeling by getting another bag — one for frivolous evening activities that don't require a full arsenal. I needed something smaller than the Timbuk2 bike messenger-style bag I currently use for work. The Timbuk2 bag is pretty much the best bag I've ever owned, which is why I started my search for a new bag on the company's Web site.

You can buy Timbuk2 bags locally — I've seen them at Play It Again Sports, among other places — but in order to customize your bag you need to go online, and believe me, you want to customize your bag. The "Build Your Own Bag" feature allows you to choose your bag's size (I have a "small," which is wide and deep enough to hold 8 1/2-by-11 folders without creasing them), appearance (you can mix and match colors), number of pockets and even the color of the water-resistant inner lining. The bag is fastened shut by both snap-in clips and strips of Velcro, and is fiercely protective of whatever you put inside it.

A bargain-basement Timbuk2 bag, like the one I just described, costs $60. It's durable, functional and looks good with every outfit I own. (Pretty much every outfit I own is black, and any color at all helps the ensemble.) I'd gladly buy another Timbuk2 bag, except my first one is holding up just fine three years after purchase, and I don't need a bag of the same size. Besides, the Timbuk2 bags don't really say "evening" to me, and I can't freaking believe I just said that.

FREITAG

A Freitag messenger bag.

On my girlfriend's advice, I briefly considered the messenger bags created by Swiss company Freitag. Freitag's bags are made from the colorful tarpaulins that cover the sides of European trucks, and no two of Freitag's bags look anything alike. Like Timbuk2, Freitag offers a "build your own bag" service with which you're allowed to choose which parts of a truck's tarp will be used to make your bag. ("It's your fault" if the bag is ugly, the Web site warns.)

Freitag's bags are a bit spendy, though. The messenger bags, comparable in size to a small Timbuk2 bag, cost $94, and a custom bag costs $175. I'm willing to pay more for a well-made bag, but not that much more. I don't want to suffer buyer's remorse every time my wholly unique bag is touched by my job — ink stains, secondhand cigarette smoke, spilled beer (much of my best work is done in bars).

In desperation, I ventured out into the real world. REI's bags are great for outdoors enthusiasts but don't look urban enough for my tastes. Montblanc's fine leather bags were too expensive (not a one under $200), and were almost too nice for me — I don't want a bag that makes the rest of me look cheap, and I can't believe I just said that, either.

KAVU

The Kavu Napsack, $24.

Thankfully, my search ended where it should have begun: close to home. Kavu's Ballard store had my perfect bag, a black canvas "Napsack," hanging on a rack a mere six feet from its front door. The "Napsack" — a steal at $24 — has mesh pockets for my phone and keys, is just big enough to hold my camera and MP3 player, is durable enough to handle any kind of indoor or outdoor activities and compacts to the size of a fanny pack without looking as ridiculous as a fanny pack.

They're sitting on my desk even as I write this, my two "utility bags." They make me proud to live in Seattle, where a pedestrian culture necessitates their use, and happy that I'm old enough not to care what anyone thinks of a man carrying a purse. If Arnold Schwarzenegger feels that I've somehow diminished the gender by carrying a bag, he's more than welcome to come up here and carry my camera, phone, notebooks and maybe a box of cookies.

Geoff Carter buys whatever the voices in his head tell him to buy, and then he writes about it every month or so. E-mail him your suggestions, compliments, threats and photos of your underwear drawer.