STRIPES ON PLAID
5/28/03. 2:38am. Home.

I've got this little enamel flag pin that I wear pretty much every day. There are reasons, and I don't really feel the need to explain them.

Back when I first started wearing it, sometimes I'd look down and see it had spun around, and I started to worry that it was upside down or sideways more often than it was straight. That seemed like it was a result of the pin being long and shirts being thin, so I tried to come up with a way to make the pin... less long. I experimented for a few days, and eventually I added a little piece of sticky-backed velcro to the back, which not only did the shortening but also gave it some 'grab.' That worked nicely -- in fact, once or twice the backing clip has fallen off inside my shirt, but the pin itself hasn't gone anywhere.

This morning when I was getting ready for work, I couldn't find it. Normally at night it gets put back in this tiny little Heineken beer stein where I keep loose change. Today there were some quarters and a few cough drops

(Halls MenthoLyptus)

but no pin.

After looking around a bit, I realized I must not have taken it off the last time I wore it... and remembered that I did laundry this weekend

(my aged washing machine's last gasp, but that's another story)

so I took a look through the didn't-feel-like-ironing-yet basket... and there was the flag pin, still attached to the flannel shirt I wore Friday, squeaky clean, with the backing clip and even the sticky-backed velcro swatch still attached.

Most people would make a big metaphor out of that.