50% Off Sale

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Too many VCR tapes…the Mod Squad through Winnie the Poo. 2009.

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Yesterday and Today Himself: Swam then got paid but worked little. Got his uniform shirts and hat. Picked up pants at Target. Estate sale, soup and salad dinner, shopping, and meeting. Herself: …and the quilt blog too: Swam, worked the semi annual 50% off sale and never stopped moving. Picked up cheap work pants for G at Target and returned a watch that didn’t fit. Last time through Target until the boycott is over. Pooped and hurting today. Gratitude: For Norma who I work with on Fridays.

The sun was out and the line in front of the store wrapped around the corner of the building when I got to work. It was 50% off day, and the crowds had scoped the merchandise out earlier and were ready. I don’t think I was quite ready for them.

“Yes, the dressing rooms are right over there,” I say to a lady trying on twenty items in the middle isle of the store.

Of course there are thirty other’s just like her jamming the corners as the dressing rooms themselves are continually full. Price tags litter the floor like confetti, and hangers are scattered like clear plastic spears laying in wait for the unwary. Under every display lie crumpled clothes fallen from hangers. One whole small side room is set aside as a “hold” area where you can store your piles of finds while you are out looking for more. The line to get in the dressing room is very long. Despite two fast volunteers on the registers, the line to pay is even longer.

Unlike Wednesday when two beyond-giant estates came into the back room to be sorted, this day there were only a few scattered donations. I spent much of my time taking things out and putting them on racks, running here or there when asked for help, and putting more stuff out on racks or shelves while dodging the masses. I missed my friend Bill who prices the good stuff and maintains the men’s clothing. He’s not been feeling well, and this madhouse was a perfect thing for him to miss. Darn it.

I left the store grumpy, shaky, weak too…perhaps someone used Fabreez to which I am allergic. Even the Geezer said I was grumpy, but half an hour in the fresh air and his company followed by a light supper left me feeling human again.

Then, I confess, we went back to the store and bought a tiny typing table to go next to G’s work area here. Back to the madness and busyness and crowded isles….imagine the foolishness of it all.