Sara and I had been planning for weeks… and canceling… and postponing.. and rescheduling… So, we finally settled on Sunday the 22nd for thrifting and lunch: Granger (snobby neighborhood) Goodwill and lunch at Macri’s (home of the “Big Beers”).

I have always hated thrift shopping with someone, because you know they are going to nab all the good stuff before you do. I knew, however, that Sara and I were looking for different things, in different sizes, in different colors, for different lifestyles so we wouldn’t be competing with each other.

Sara watched me pile stuff into the cart. Shirts, skirts, pants, sweaters and a coat. She found so many 80s business women’s blouses (silky, with floppy bowties and shoulder pads) it became comical. I told her she was obsessing about the powersuit tops and needed to get down to business. The business of thrifting.

She found a few shirts and dithered over a perfect pair of plaid pants – because they were maternity, i.e. they had a wide elastic waistband. I told her no one would know except her. After I got home and washed all my “new” clothes, I emailed Sara to tell her that one of the shirts I bought was a maternity shirt and I wasn’t telling her which one.

I found this fantastic sweater, white with a pattern knitted in of… large, very depressed vegetables. I don’t know how else to describe them. There were two tomatoes (one took up the whole middle third of the back of the sweater) with sad, puzzled, lethargic expressions. Was there a pea pod? Or maybe a cucumber? I really wished I had taken a camera to preserve this sweater in all it’s glory. Sara found a tshirt to match – it had a “farmer’s market” theme applique on the front with red and white gingham trim.

Overall, I spent less than $40 for a coat, a bunch of tshirts (including a Def Leppard one for Michael), a few long sleeve button down shirts, a Tar Heels T, a Notre Dame T (in case we ever have a ND/blue jeans day at work again), a pair of khakis for the impending uniform at work, three towels and four pillowcases. I felt bad because Sara only bought two shirts.

I’ve had bad days thrifting, but never that bad.