As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Well, back in the day when preparing for my study abroad program at Tel-Aviv University in Israel, we were restricted to one large duffle bag for our luggage. Known as the girl in high school who “never wore anything twice,” this was quite a challenge to fit my clothes, let alone dorm room gear, and toiletries into one duffle bag. Mind you, this was 1992, so I’m not sure that space bags existed at that time, but if they did, we were certainly not aware of them.
So, my mom, Lois came up with an ingenious idea—to stuff my sleeping bag into two girdles. Picture this, my mom and I, both clad in our nightgowns, in our upstairs hallway shoving a bulbous sleeping bag into two girdles. Too bad we didn’t have the convenience of smartphones to capture this sight on video. I am certain that we would have won, or at least ranked, on America’s Funniest Videos. Indeed, the girdle solution certainly reduced the size of my sleeping bag, enabling me to pack more stuff.
More recently, in July 2015 I traveled to San Francisco for business. In anticipation of the cool weather, I wore skinny jeans and tall, walking boots. Having lived in South Florida for nearly three years, I don’t think I had worn these boots since I lived in the Northeast. So, after a while, I discovered that my heels were sore from the friction of them rubbing up and down against the surface of the boots as I walked.
My journey was nearly over as I took a shuttle from the airport to the hotel. Upon arrival, I was so exhausted I couldn’t imagine tackling the San Francisco hills to find a pharmacy, yet I had dinner plans that evening, nearby to my hotel, so I knew I would be walking.
Then, in searching for a solution within the four walls of my hotel room, suddenly, it hit me… panty liners. Yes, you read correctly. I proceeded to apply the sticky side of the panty liners across my heels, put back on my socks and boots and voila… no pain!
I proceeded to implement the panty liner blister prevention method whenever wearing boots going forward. However, last week when heading to the mall with a mission to try on shoes, I was wearing boots, and I had to take pause before applying the panty liners, as I would be revealing my panty-liner clad feet in public.
While far from easily embarrassed, I still have my limits, so, instead, I opted for large Band-Aids. At other times, I have used first aid waterproof tape. By the way, neither the Band-Aids, nor the first aid tape provide nearly as much protection and comfort as the panty liners, just sayin’.
