One of the things about traveling for work is that eventually, you’ll have to, well, work. Whether you’re attending meetings, going to a conference, touring offices, going to court, meeting customers, going through training, or some other type of work, a few office supplies will always come in handy. Here is a list of what I keep with me for a typical domestic trip.

Writing utensils. I like to have a pen and highlighter with me all the time, whether I’m traveling or not. You will inevitably need a pen several times a day, and you never know when a highlighter will come in handy! I was recently asked about pens exploding in flight. I’ve never had this issue, but apparently lots of people have. A couple of tips to avoid this:

1. Keep your pens in a plastic bag, so if there is a leak it won’t get all over your other items.
2. Store your pens with the tip up—they are less likely to leak this way.
3. If you travel with a fountain pen, either fill it completely or have it completely empty during the flight to minimize mess potential.
4. Check out The Well-Appointed Desk for a great roundup of pens that are supposed to be flight-friendly. Also, the Uniball website will allow you to search for pens that won’t leak in flight.

Notepads. Again, I always have a notepad with me, travel day or not. Size doesn’t really matter to me—I will typically take whatever free notepad I’ve gotten recently. Some people prefer spiral notebooks or legal pads. Whatever works for you!

External mouse. This little guy makes it way easier to use your laptop on the road. I also use mine as a clicker during presentations. Just remember that some airlines won’t let you use a wireless one in flight.

Binder clips. I have a set of tiny binder clips that help me corral travel docs and random work papers.

Flash drive. About to do a presentation and your computer won’t work with the projector? Been there. Need to send someone a file too big for email? There too. Forgot your passwords? Three for three. A memory key is a necessity for a variety of reasons. In addition to current presentations and files, I also have a password protected list of important numbers, website logins, and passwords, just in case.

Padfolio. When you need to keep a lot of papers together or look professional, a nice padfolio really does the trick. It will hold business cards, a notepad, a pen, and random papers, and makes you look put together in the process. Another option is to bring a simple file folder to keep papers from crumpling in your bag.

Headphones with microphone. For everything from meetings on the road to chilling out to my favorite tunes, headphones go with me everywhere.

Readers, what office supplies do you always travel with? Have you ever had an issue with pens leaking or exploding in flight?

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This is yet another post that could be titled “Home Warrior Saves the Day.”

Over the weekend, the Home Warrior and I went to Playa del Carmen for a close friend’s wedding. We had a great time and the wedding was lovely, so of course we were sad yesterday when it was time to head home to reality. Our ride to the airport was supposed to pick us up at 9am, so we were packed and ready to go in the lobby at 8:50am. It got to be 9, then 9:05, then 9:10…. I was thinking, this is odd—even though we’re at the beach, these guys are typically very punctual. Evidently the Home Warrior was thinking the same thing because he said, “I wonder why they’re late?” Something told him to pull out the tickets and double check everything, and it is sure lucky he did.

See, when we set up our ride to the airport two days prior we verbally confirmed everything—we leave Monday, our flight is at 12:40, we need to be picked up at 9—plus we handed the clerk a copy of our airplane itinerary so she could see exactly what was going on. Both the Home Warrior and I noted that she seemed really tired, but didn’t think anything of it at the time. She filled everything out, printed our tickets, and we were relieved to check this item off our list and go back to the beach. But neither of us ever actually read the ticket to confirm everything was correct. Ugh. Classic rookie mistake! We should know better.

So. Back to yesterday. Something told HW to look at the tickets and confirm everything was correct. He turned to me and said, “Today isn’t June 6 is it?” My heart dropped. No, yesterday was in fact June 4. Cue Road Warriorette freak out. I grabbed the tickets and ran over to the shuttle booth. (Okay, “ran” may be overstating it. I am pretty pregnant after all. But HW later said it was the fastest he’s seen me move, outside of meal times, in months.) I explained to the lady what had happened. She got a panicked look on her face and got on the phone immediately. She called the home office and started trying to get a shuttle headed to pick us up ASAP. While she was on hold, she told us that if this didn’t work our only option would be to get a cab, which would be pretty pricey. The Road Warriorette freak out got worse. Finally, after about ten minutes on hold, she said a shuttle would be there to pick us up in fifteen minutes. Whew!!

The shuttle came, and we got to the airport with plenty of time. But the moral of this story? Always, always, check and double check important travel documents to make sure the dates and times are correct. This is especially true when traveling in other countries. Obviously it’s easy to get complacent when you travel a lot like many of us do, but the one time you catch something you will be so glad for your vigilance!!

Readers, have you ever had a close call because you didn’t double check something?

(For you regular travelers, this will not be a new tip.)

A friend of mine, who hasn’t traveled that often before, will soon be traveling for work on a regular basis. She is justifiably a little nervous, so this past weekend I caught her up on all of my tips. One of her questions surprised me, though. She said, “So what’s the deal with phones? I heard from someone that you can’t use them at all while you’re on a plane.” I was quick to correct her—you can use your phone on a plane, but not during the actual flight. In fact, that’s not true either. You can’t use your phone as a phone once the airplane door closes. However, you can use your phone in airplane mode to listen to music, play games, or anything else that doesn’t require it to connect to the phone network.

You can use your phone to talk, text, send email, etc, before the airplane door closes. And you can actually turn on your phone once you land, while your plane is taxiing to the gate. So keep it handy! I’ve noticed that men will often keep their phones in their shirt pockets. I don’t usually have a pocket there, so I keep it in the pocket of my purse, or just hang onto it if I know I’ll be using it for music during the flight.

Mostly, if you pay attention to the flight attendants, you will be fine. They will tell you when to turn your phone off and when it’s okay to use again.

Readers, where do you keep your phones during travel? Do you hope that someday people can talk on their cell phones during flights?

Last month, I submitted my expenses for a recent work trip. There was nothing out of the ordinary for the trip. Hotel, car, food, a few tips, and a dinner with customers. All very standard. So imagine my surprise when I got the report sent back to me with a correction: “Company policy does not allow gas to be purchased from the rental agency directly. Employees must get gas prior to returning rental vehicle.” Whaaa?

I always, always fill up my fuel tank before turning in  a rental car. Why? those of you unfamiliar with rentals may ask. Well, unless you prepay for the fuel before you take the car, you will likely pay at least twice the going rate for a gallon of gas. It makes plenty of sense why a company would not approve that. However, Budget has an option called E-Z-Fuel–if you drive less than 75 miles, you will be charged $13.99 to fill up the tank. This is a pretty good deal, especially for a larger (less fuel efficient) car. My company has no problem approving that. And for this particular trip, I knew I hadn’t gone over 50 miles, much less 75. So what was the deal?

When I pulled up my copy of the receipt, the problem was obvious. Whoever had processed my car at the returns center had incorrectly input the new mileage, stating that I had driven close to a thousand miles. Uh, no. I drove around Raleigh for a couple days, staying pretty much out near the airport (with one memorable trip to Angus Barn–deeeeeeelicious!!). I don’t know how big North Carolina is, but I would have had to have driven pretty far to get almost 1000 miles on that car. Once I called them and explained the situation, they straightened it out pretty quickly and refunded me the cost of the fuel.

The problem is that I have gotten so used to just grabbing a receipt and shoving it in my wallet. But really, it doesn’t take that long to glance at it to make sure the costs are right. I’m lucky this time that the problem was solved easily–but that might not be the case next time!! So definitely check your receipts and make sure everything is correct before walking away. You may catch something, and you’ll be glad you did!!

Readers, have you ever caught a mistake on a receipt? How did you fix it?

During most times of the year, I get to the airport at the last possible minute. At home, I prefer to arrive around 45 minutes prior to departure. It gives me the five to ten minutes I need to get through security, with an extra few minutes to grab something to eat to go. At unfamiliar airports, I typically go for the recommended hour. At huge unfamiliar airports or for international flights, I’ll sometimes go as high as an hour and a half. But the holidays are something else. An abundance of vacationers + infrequent flyers means long lines to check in and go through security. An airport that normally takes five minutes to go through security can take upwards of 30. Larger airports can take even longer!

I was reminded of this again when a certain family member (who shall remain nameless) was catching a flight to DC last week. He assumed he could get to the airport 45 minutes ahead of his flight, and make it. Normally this would be plenty of time, but this time of year, it’s just not. Security took so long that not only was he not through by departure time, but several other people on his flight weren’t through either. He said they tried to hold the plane a few minutes, but he (and several other people) ended up missing it anyway. Dangit!

The moral of the story, friends, is that even though killing time at the airport is not fun, missing your flight is even less fun. So suck it up and head to the airport earlier than you would normally.

Readers, how early do you normally try to arrive? How much earlier do you arrive during the holidays?

If you’re available at 2pm EST, tune into Girlfriendology Radio to hear us discuss holiday travel. Should be a fun discussion!!

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A month ago, a coworker was traveling to visit a client. When she landed at her home airport, she rummaged through her bag for her car keys. Couldn’t find them. Starting to freak out, she pulled everything out of her purse. They weren’t there. Super frustrated, she opened her wallet to get a friend’s work phone number and found her keys, hooked on the change pocket.

Last week, I was traveling with a friend to a conference. After a long drive and almost seven hours of meetings, we finally made our way to the hotel. We checked in, dropped our stuff off in the room, and headed down to the bar for a beverage. After a quick glass of wine and some conference debrief, we went back to the room. Walking out of the elevator, my friend started looking in her purse for the room key. Couldn’t find it. Similar story to above–she took everything out of her purse and the keys still weren’t there. This time, however, it turned out we left them at the hotel bar. Oops.

The moral of these stories (and several other stories people have told me over the years) is that it is super important to have a designated place for keys. It doesn’t matter if they are car keys or hotel room keys, or if you are a man or a woman, knowing where your keys are can save a lot of headache. I have a specific zipper pocket in my purse where I keep my car keys, and I keep my hotel room key in the outside pocket. Getting into the habit of putting your keys in a specific place doesn’t take too long, just be deliberate about it.

Note: I strongly recommend that the designated place for your car keys is in your personal item, NOT your suitcase. I have heard too many horror stories of airlines losing bags with car keys to ever want anyone to go through that.

Readers, do you have a place for your keys? Where is it?

You may remember how I neglected to make a list for my last trip to Boston. Well, in addition to being ill-prepared for the rain with footwear, I also completely forgot to pack my contacts case. Normally, I leave it in my non-liquids travel bag all the time, but after a recent trip to the lake I had taken it out and neglected to put it back in. This is kind of ironic, because I actually have three other contact lens cases in my liquids bag, each filled with various lotions and hair products. While I thought about cleaning one of these cases and using it, I didn’t trust that I could get all of the lotion out. I also briefly considered just leaving my contacts in and sleeping with them, but I really hate doing that because they get so dried out. So I searched around the room for something, anything, that I could use. Inspiration struck when I noticed that I had two water glasses. I ended up squirting just enough contact solution into the bottom to cover my lenses and setting them up side by side on the bathroom counter. More solution was used than normal, but at least I didn’t have to sleep in my contacts.

The moral of the story? Check your list before you leave home! But if you forget something, look around your room. The possibilities for turning something random into something useful can be surprising!

Readers, have you ever forgotten something and adapted a hotel room staple to replace it?

A few trips ago, I packed all of my normal stuff for a plane ride: iPhone, Kindle, magazine, snacks, and knitting. It was only once I was on the actual flight that I realized I had forgotten to wind my yarn, and so had a pretty much useless skein. In my early morning purse packing, I had simply grabbed the nearest mass of yarn, not the pretty, ready to use ball I meant to get. (For the non-yarn crazy: Yarn is often shipped in a skein, which is basically a really long strand looped over and over, then twisted and folded.  You can’t knit or crochet when yarn is like that, as it would become a tangled mess. So you have to wind it into a ball. Imagine the scenes you’ve seen in old movies of someone sitting with yarn looped around their hands, and someone else winding it into a ball. That’s what I’m talking about.) Pictured: A lovely example of a skein from the Etsy store ByMelody.

So what is a girl to do? There I sat, mid-row, with plenty of yarn but no way to wind it. I looked around, thinking, can I use my purse? Or my knees? How about my arm rest? After a number of unsuccessful tries, and with mounting frustration, I finally was struck with inspiration. The tray table! I wrapped the yarn around it, then closed and locked it. I slowly started winding the ball around my hands, and it actually worked! It wasn’t perfect, but after about ten minutes I was able to get back to my actual knitting. So if you forget to wind your yarn before your trip, don’t despair! The seat back table in front of you will work in a pinch.

My best friend recently traveled to Atlanta for a conference. She had plenty of stories for the blog when she came back (just wait until you hear my etiquette for next week–I shudder just to think of it), but the first thing that caught my ear was this. “The Atlanta airport is so disorganized!” she said. “I arrived at my gate, and was sitting there waiting for my flight, when out of nowhere they made an announcement that they were changing the gate!” She stopped, waiting for my reaction.  “What else happened that made you think they are disorganized?” I asked. “Well, nothing. That was it,” she answered.

At this point, I was reminded how much stuff frequent fliers deal with that is baffling to those who fly less often. Airport security (“What do you mean I can’t take barbecue sauce in my carry-on? It’s sealed!”), turbulence (“Are we going to crash? What’s happening??”), and yes, gate changes. I can absolutely see how frustrating gate changes would be if you’ve never dealt with it before, but unfortunately it’s a fact of traveling life. Airplanes arrive late, depart early, flights get canceled, etc. And the people who figure out the gates are arranging and rearranging a constantly moving puzzle. Honestly, considering how many flights go in and out of Atlanta (and DFW, ORD, JFK, LAX…..) it’s surprising the gates aren’t changing even more often!

I don’t spent a lot of time in the Atlanta airport, so for all I know it could actually be disorganized. But gate changes will happen everywhere, from the largest to the smallest airports. Every so often, check the sign at your gate to make sure you’re still at the right place. And remember, traveling is an adventure! Try to be flexible and just go with the flow, and it will be way less stressful.

Readers, is there anything that was disconcerting to you when you first started traveling that you are used to now?