I can still Find a Good Bargain and Something Neat at a Good 'ol Thrift Store---this is a Long Post, so Feel Free to Skip Ahead to the End

After I found water coming in through the ceiling, making a puddle on my comforter and toss pillows, I should have figured it was going to be a rough couple of days. Library book torn, bleach bathroom cleaner mental haze, brand new broken storage box, and, today, cut by the smallest glass shard exposed on the edge of an air dried tumbler glass.

After Bits' bath, I spent a good hour (or two) explaining to him why exactly he couldn't have a Spencer train. Bits had seen one in his Thomas Yearbook (catalog) explained in his small wordage that he wanted one, and I got the joy of trying to further explain the difficulties of buying said train here in the U.P., let alone the fact that sometimes even if we want something and are a good boy, we can't always have what we want. This crying, sad, blubbering boy, still did not fully understand what I was talking about. Solution: a trip to Book World, the mini Barnes and Noble-esque bookstore found in various U.P. towns, to buy a Thomas book. When the tough get stressed, they go grocery shopping and hit a few fave spots on the way.

We went to Vinny's and bought some vintage goodies for Mommy and Mr. Xenopus and after hitting up the library, City Hall, recycling, Burger King, and the previously mentioned book store, headed to Walmart. I forgot my reusable grocery totes, the ones I never, ever seem to forget. I strolled aimlessly around housewares and sporting goods to decompress before the crazy up and down, back and forth, checking the list over and over again shopping had to get started in order to get all that we need to eat and survive. After getting a cart full of items to satisfy my list and hunger, I headed out to the Jeep, put all my plastic, sloppy bags into the back and remembered our ever constant dependence on toilet paper, oh, and the forgotten bottle slips in my back pocket. Luckily, Bits likes to run, 'cause I was in no mood for strolling around Walmart any further. In and out of the big Superstore, and home we go.

This gets me to my point. What do your purchases say about you? At Walmart, besides the obvious milk, bread, and such, a camping coffee peculator, three blue ties, two cans of large artichoke hearts, reduced "day old" valentine cookies, and an odd bunch of leeks found their way among our purchases. Our thrift store goodies were: vintage dress, vintage yarn home purse, records, old sesame street books, fabric scraps, and picture frames. Again, what does this say about me? Does it help to know that each thrift book was only a quarter, the purse a buck fifty, and the dress a whopping four bucks. What about three ties at six dollars each and a camping accessory at over eleven. Many of us shop to de-stress (or stress to shop), I do a little for necessity, a little for fun, and a little to hold onto the part of me that I still think is hip (i.e. cool...although, I think hip may not be such a contemporary word to use anymore, but I really wouldn't know).