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Part of our crazy new quarantine world involves sharing on social media the chronicles of our "new normal" lives. Friends admit their hair has reverted to a color they haven't seen since 2011. Botox and upper-lip waxing appointments are cancelled, and pedicures top everyone's list of "5 Things I Will Do When the World Reopens."

Friends say they haven't worn jeans in weeks - that baggy, stretchy pants are the wave of the future. That future us won't even wear jeans anymore.

Obviously we won't be able to because of the COVID 19+ pounds we gained.

Pop-up ads for roomy dresses and stretchy leggings (comfy!) wrestle for my attention amidst recipes for ground beef (easy!) and ads for masks with wine glasses printed on them (safe!).

Comfy. Cozy. At-home attire for your new life.

In my pre-COVID life I wore dresses/dress pants/blouses/heels to my office job. My daily wardrobe consistently and predictably centers on two colors - navy blue and black.

Dull. Unless you are a ballpoint pen.

Now, seven weeks into working from home jeans are my everyday outfit - nicely paired with something navy blue or black, obviously.

Enter the Quarantine Dress.

Back in early March I had an event on my calendar - a surprise party at a fancy restaurant. I decided to wear something from my closet - until a few days before the event, when panic set in. Nothing seemed right, so I did a quick run to the store just to take a look.

We all know how that goes.

The dress immediately caught my eye from a distance because RED. And while I don't usually wear red, this particular dress was motioning for me to come over, to just take a look. I'm not sure if it was the color, the bold, flowery pattern, the flouncy hem, but something told me this was THE DRESS. I bought it without trying it on because back then - in early March - we had no time for trying things on in the store. We had plans and events and things on the calendar!

Turns out the dress was a bit "too much" for the event - too red, too flouncy, too busy, too much. It fit well and was fun to wear, but it just wasn't right. No big deal, I'll just return it to the store. Which was a fine plan until the shelter-in-place order was issued.

Hard to imagine that my favorite clothing store is not considered an essential business.

The store closed hastily, leaving me the proud owner of a crazy red dress and not a single event on my calendar at which to wear it. Sure, the return policy will likely be extended, maybe store credit issued once we are all allowed to shop again.

But for now it hangs in my closet - tags attached - waiting.

I should probably take the tags off and wear the Quarantine Dress, even if it's only down the hallway to my temporary home office in the family room. Nobody but my husband will even see it. I might take a selfie, post it to Instagram (Feeling cute, might delete later) and then actually delete it.

Or not.

Because when this quarantine is over and we return to our previously scheduled lives, I might find that the Quarantine Dress suits me just fine after all. That bold red and crazy flowers and flouncy hems are just the thing to combat weeks of social distancing and inches of gray roots glaring at my crown. That purchase on a whim must always be a wee bit crazy and unexpected and quite possibly something we can never return.

Post-quarantine Sherri might be a bit more gray, a bit more anxious in public settings, and she will still scrub the hell out of her hands 47 times a day.

But she will also have a fabulous dress in a color that isn't navy blue or black.

And she will wear the hell out of it.

- Sherri Kuhn

Sherri Kuhn is an undercover freelance writer, disguised as a mild-mannered CPA. She enjoys writing about midlife and motherhood, much to the dismay of her now-grown children. On her blog The Other Side of the Fence she writes from the heart - with an occasional side of sarcasm and humor. Sherri contributed to the EBWW humor anthology Laugh Out Loud: 40 Women Humorists Celebrate Then and Now. Her writing has been featured at The Washington Post, Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, Today Show Parenting, Huffington Post, Scary Mommy and Mamalode.She was chosen as a cast member for the 2012Listen to Your Mothershow in San Francisco. Sherri lives in Northern California with her husband in their mostly empty nest.