The Glitter Analogy

 

 There's a meme on social media about spreading COVID-19 and working with glitter, how no matter how careful you are, it's going to end up everywhere. With no intention of doing so, I proved its truthfulness this week.

I had a small area in my bedroom that needed some color. It's a long, narrow shelf with paneling behind it that was too monotone, too dull. I decided to spice it up with some creative decor, so I bought some little knicky-knacky things to hang on it.

It didn't work. They faded into the dull background. It needed something else.

So I started looking, and I came up with a swath of netting fabric. It matches the bedroom curtains and makes a great background for the knick-knacks, bringing out their shapes and colors.

Except it's infused with glitter.

First I ironed the fabric, and I noticed the floor around the ironing board was shiny. Okay, I'll sweep that away later. Putting it up, I had to stand on the bed, and I noticed glitter falling onto the spread. All right, I'll get that with the hand vac. Hubby came in to help me make sure it was even, and he said, "Man, there's glitter all over." I told him I'd take care of it.

It's two days later. I have swept, vacuumed, and mopped the bedroom floor. I've run the hand vac over the bed multiple times. It still looks like Christmas in there. To make matters worse, we've tracked glitter through the whole house, so our chairs, our rugs, and our socks sparkle. We've taken to checking before we go anywhere other people will see us, removing shiny spots from our faces and hubby's mustache. Anywhere I try to sit down to relax, I catch a glimpse of another particle, and I have to get up and deal with it. 

The original fabric has a spot that's drooped, and it really needs to be adjusted, but I'm not touching that thing again. It can hang crooked for eternity!