Yesterday, my "daughter" Jenny and I went to Goodwill, we both love it. I really do adore that store, but few of my friends and almost none of my family appreciate it, and Jenny is a MASTER shopper, especially at discount stores like Goodwill and Walmart.
My expertise lies in finding music, movies, toys from my childhood, and Lion King related paraphernalia. Her talents are in the clothing departments; particularly the skirts. I almost never look through clothes and even more rarely purchase things, so I figured we could work off each other's strengths.
It was very successful...I came home with the Anastasia soundtrack, two adorable (and modest!) skirts, a ceramic Simba bank, and a stuffed Christmas Snoopy. In my decorating for Christmas I do like to put out stuffed animals, and this Snoopy was not only clean and adorable, but also 50 cents. It was a wonderful trip, (good for Jenny, too- she got two adorable skirts, including a jean skirt just like what she needed and wanted!) and we had a lot of fun.
But I'm not just writing about our trip. If I was, I'd feel more guilty about not taking pictures of my purchases to post. I'm actually posting about an experience we had as we looked through dresses. There are sometimes some really cute dresses at Goodwill, but unfortunately it's easier to screw up a dress than a skirt and most of them are ugly. We spent a good amount of time poking fun at the poor dresses.
I'm also a fan of looking at the wedding dresses. It's especially fun, because wedding dresses are supposed to be beautiful and often the ones at Goodwill are far from that. There were two in particular we kept looking at; one that was huge with all sorts of accessories and ornamentation and actually quite pretty, and one that was super simple- white, satin top with a tulle bottom. We probably would have looked longer, but this lady was coming by and wanted to look at them.
So Jenny and I stand looking at the funky dresses close by, the lady "hmms" at a few dresses and turns to face us. Then, she asks us the craziest question I've heard since "First Kiss Time?"
She looks straight at our 17 year-old selves and asks, in all seriousness, "Are you getting married soon?" LADY. WE'RE SEVENTEEN. That's not even legal without parental permission!! So we said no, a bit too shocked to tell her how crazy she sounded.
She continued to give us legitimately good advice on where to get cheap wedding dresses, such as Black & White in Chicago. I don't remember the name of the other place because I was trying to go from "this lady is crazy why she such a fool" mentality to "this lady is giving good advice I should take mental notes" mentality. It's a big jump, y'see. The places she was talking about take donated dresses and sells them at super discount prices. She was saying these places generally have high couture dresses and big names and such and the prices are amazing, so basically an awesomer version of Goodwill for engaged ladies. I'm beginning to think she's a wedding dress collector or something.
But even someone with as crazy a hobby as wedding dress collecting (not that Lion King merchandise collecting is any more sane) should have known we weren't getting married. I know as I get to be a senior I'll have more and more peers throwing baby showers and whatnot, maybe I'll even be invited to one (heaven forbid), but for betsy's sake! I'm not going to get married in high school! And Jenny and I look pretty much nothing like people mature enough to start that chapter of life.
Sure, I'm the last unmarried Hendricks fledgling. But all those comments about how it's my turn to get married now and whatever? I don't really take them seriously. Sorry, wedding-dress-collector-lady. When I do get married in 5+ years, I'll let you know.
Wouldn't It Be Nice can be found by the Beach Boys
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