Six Feet Apart: Ham for Dinner

Yesterday, I went to the post office to mail a package to a customer.  When I approached the entrance, a man held the door open for me, smiled, and said, "Six feet apart."  I smiled back and thanked him, returning the gesture of grinning-and-bearing-it solidarity.  But on the inside I felt uneasy, and I think that he did too.  Because our little exchange confirmed the unthinkable: the threat of the coronavirus had gone from being something in the news to something at our local post office.  And that's when I knew that it would be my last trip there for awhile and that I'd (temporarily) close my Etsy shop.

The Tote Trove is a happy place, and I don't like to sully it with references to the gloomy things that go on in the world.  But I'm also committed to keeping it real.  And the coronavirus is as real as it gets.  So I'm taking precautions like everyone else, hunkering down in my house with my meager supply of price-gouged antibacterial gel and boxes of granola bars.  I'm going to read lots of books and watch lots of TV and make lots of things and keep on believing in the rainbow that will come after this rainstorm.

Because that package I was mailing?  It was my Fabulous Felt Ham Dinner Barrette, and it was going to a fellow New Jerseyian who had previously messaged me that it was "the best thing I’ve seen in a while."  When she bought it earlier this week, I was going through a tough time (non-coronavirus-related), and seeing that Etsy Transactions notification email in my inbox was like a sign.  That it's what I do at the Tote Trove that matters, my way of putting good out into the world.

That's why, despite these dark times, I choose to believe that the world will give that good back.

So please stay safe, sane, and healthy out there.  And keep an eye out for that rainbow.