I don’t remember exactly when I took to living in stretch pants full time.
The process was gradual, I’m sure of that. I started out wearing a pair of bell-bottom stretch pants when I was writing. I didn’t actually live in them; they were part of my writing costume and they were comfy.
But as the pandemic wore on, I noticed the legs of my stretch pants were getting longer and longer until, one day, I saw they were covering my feet, and it was not a very respectable look.
“I need to upgrade my stretch pants!” I decided.
So, I bought stretch pants with pockets. Pockets in stretch pants are completely useless because you can't put anything in them without it looking as if you have a growth on your leg. A credit card makes a bump. A key looks like the beginnings of a tumor.
But the pockets signaled that these stretch pants were almost like regular pants. They just stretched. They were certainly less disreputable looking than the stretch pants that covered my feet. I started wearing them most of the day.
In the late afternoon, I take my hike and that's when I put on my second pair of stretch pants.
"There's nothing wrong with hiking in stretch pants!" 1 remind myself. "These are athletic stretch pants!"
My hiking stretch pants look nothing at all like the stretch pants I just took off because they are not bell-bottoms and they don' t have pockets. I wear them exclusively on my hike, and they are a little worn out because dogs jump up on them and bushes snag them. You would certainly never mistake them for my regular stretch pants, the ones I wear the rest of the day.
But one day I got home from my hike, took a hot bath and thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to just slip into something comfy like ... maybe stretch pants?"
That was when I brought out my old stretch pants, the disreputable ones that cover my feet, and put them on.
"I can look a little disreputable in the evening!" I figured.
These stretch pants are not as tight as the stretch pants with pockets, and they are a bit heavier, which is nice on a cool night. I think of them as my "casual stretch pants," and I wear them as I make my dinner and lounge about in the evening.
Then one night while getting ready for bed, I ...
