“I have a pouch below my belly, whereas I had a thin waist before. Now there’s this situation down there, low and grabbable. If it had a zipper, you could store stuff in it, as in a fanny pack.” ~@ANNELAMOTT
It’s called Pandemic Pouch and it’s all the rage! – Cindy Nye (Twitter)
The above listed is my favorite quote for today – a hot, messy Monday in July. And Cindy Nye’s response gives a classic name to a phenomenon/”fashion trend” that many of us are sharing these days. I’m just relieved to not be alone in carrying around a Pandemic Pouch, day and night, day in and day out. My Pandemic Pouch seems to have an expansion feature and I am getting really good at vacillating between decorating it with belts, and then trying to camouflage it, underneath colorful, flow-y, blouse-y bohemian tops. It seems that my Pandemic Pouch holds more than I ever knew possible.
I was reading this charming collection over the weekend, from southern writers, and of course, William Faulkner is always mentioned as one of the most unequaled authors of this genre. Here are two of my favorite quotes attributed to Faulkner:
Speaking of the south, my regular readers know that I temporarily lost my mind and control of my impulses, by insisting that we get a third dog. I somehow thought that raising a pandemic puppy, would help to ease the stress of this bewildering, sad, confusing and unusual situation. How paradoxical of me! Nonetheless, I am totally and completely, captivated, smitten and fully in love with our little guy, aptly named Trip. I came up with the name “Trip” because Trip is our third dog and he is a southern breed of dog. Trip is a Boykin spaniel, which by the breed being originated there, is actually “the official dog of South Carolina.” South Carolinians take their Boykin dogs so seriously that they literally have a day devoted to Boykin spaniels, every year. Boykin Spaniel Day is right around the corner on September 1st. “Trip” is a nickname often given to the third of anything in the south. Having gone to college in Virginia, I became friends with more than one “Trip”, in my tenure there. I also like to joke that we named the puppy “Trip”, because he is our summer adventure, instead of taking an actual trip, during this coronavirus madness. As it turns out, like most names and words, there is another additional meaning to his name that fits him aptly. Trip has become my Velcro dog. As I write this, he is warming my feet. Trip follows me everywhere, including the bathroom, the garage, my closet, under the covers – basically, he follows me wherever I am trying to disappear to, for some rare and fleeting moments to myself, while we are all mostly at home, trying to avoid catching the virus. I trip on Trip almost every single day and more than once. I hope that this tripping over Trip does not land me in the hospital. That would defeat the purpose of this puppy adventure completely. Again, I marvel at the paradox.