Thrift Shopping

The five SOWER ladies at Gospel Rescue Mission said goodbye to the men and enjoyed lunch out at Jason's Deli.  Usually we have a simple lunch at the Mission on the 4 days we work. Then we spent most of the afternoon in two thrift stores and in Target. When it was time to leave, the group leader looked at me in amazement  and said, "You didn't buy anything?" Little did she know how many thrift stores I've visited this past month, on top of wading through all the clothing donations we received at the Mission.   Our friends from Sleepy Valley, with whom we travelled to get here, are thrift shop connoisseurs, and were acquainted with every thrift store on our trip down.  They rate them as either "good" or else avoid them altogether.  It's hard to keep up to Erica; she heads straight for the yarn section, and Shelley looks for interesting coloured sheets out of which she makes rag rugs. I've bought a couple of things I've needed for the kitchen and some clothing items for unexpected weather conditions, like the day we were on a bird trip. I had forgotten to take my warm sweater, and the wind was blowing up a gale.  I was freezing, so begged Terry to stop at a little church-run thrift store in a tiny town where the only warm garment to be found was one of those coarsely woven Mexican "shirts" for a dollar  .  It did the trick, though, and I was able to bird watch in relative comfort.  I'm still looking for a couple of items, but I'm almost thrift shopped out.  Almost.