Day 4, 1 Item, $6.29

I spotted a Salvation Army thrift store while on my way to a birthday party for my friend’s son. I think I have special sensory cells which enables me to sniff these stores out. I made a mental note to make a stop there on my way home. After munching on delicious cheese and crackers and snapping lots of photos I decided to leave the party a little early. I was anxious to visit the store. It looked fairly new and was in a great location; I assumed there had to be plenty of great finds.

I walked in the store and headed straight for the blouse rack. You can tell if a store is worth thrifting if the blouse selection is nice. I wasn't impressed. Mostly everything looked like it came out of grandma's closet. I found a pair of slacks by Anne Taylor (the Loft). I tried them on. They fit okay. But the colors and fabric reminded me of something J.J. would have worn on Good Times. I spent about five minutes in the mirror trying out different poses as if would change the way the pants looked. I still had the urge to flip my hands up and blurt out "kid dy-no-mite”. I put the slacks back on the rack and did something I'd never done before. I walked towards the shoe rack. I've never been too enthused about wearing used shoes. As a child I think my mom must have frightened me about getting athletes foot if I wore other people’s shoes. I'd imagine growing a big nasty itchy fungus at the bottom of my feet. Okay, back to the shoes. A pair of 3 ½ inch gold heels caught my eyes. I tried them on (with socks) and fell in love with them. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that this is unusual for me as I don't particularly enjoy wearing heels. I haven't quite mastered the sexy gait that models have while wearing them. But these shoes reminded me of the 80's dance show Solid Gold. I saw myself wearing them with a cute dress, which stops right below the knees, while dancing to the O'Jay's 70’s hit "I love Music". The shoes were only $5.99. Something stopped me from impulsively running to the check-out counter and buying them: guilt. I felt guilty for spending what seemed to be so little money, but could add up to a lot if I spend every day. I felt guilty because I have bills to pay, food to buy, and I need gas for my car to continue making these thrift store trips. I sat on a bench still wearing the shoes, with my jeans rolled up above my ankles, and stared into space. I know that I must have looked crazy. But I was trying to rationalize things. I had to convince myself that I needed to buy those shoes. I mean, $5.99 wouldn't even put a dent in the amount of debt that I have. And, how much food could I really buy for that little amount of money? It would barely cover a meal at McDonald's. As far as gas is concerned $5.99 wouldn't get me very far since it costs about $2.55 a gallon. So there you have it. I bought the shoes!

That night I took out my old dusty laptop and attempted to write about my shoes. Did I mention that I don't have internet at home and have not used my laptop in months? You are probably wondering how I post these blogs. Well I mostly do them at work. Is something really wrong with that? Anyway, I wanted to get a head start on writing this blog. So I decided that I would type and save it until I got to work. When I turned on my computer a message crawled across the screen that read, "Operating System Not Found". In other words, "your ancient dinosaur system has finally crashed!" If it's not one thing, it's another. What else could go wrong? But when I glanced over at my gold shoes on the floor in the corner I felt better. I smiled. It turned out to be a good day after all.


****For all of my followers I want you to know that the price at the top of the page is the amount I spent including tax. This explains why it's a little more than the actual listed price in the blog.