it’s gonna be a project

It’s Wednesday. I’ve been up. I tried for a while to go back to sleep, but gave up around 5:30am. I scrolled through Reddit before I moved on to TikTok. There was no getting comfortable. I was either too hot, too cold, or just fucking uncomfortable.

We left the house yesterday. Shawshank suggested we drive out to Slightly BiggerTown when he left work at lunchtime. We could go to their thrift store; they always have a lot of great stuff but aren’t open when we go shopping on the weekends. We could stop for lunch after, then drop in at TinyTown‘s secondhand shop on our way home. Even if we didn’t find anything, we’d be out of the house for a little while.

We found stuff.

The sign outside the shop announced they were having a “buy one, get one free” sale on everything except boots and coats. I picked up a pack of two sheets, a mandala wall tapestry, some bras, and a dance recital costume. Shawshank found a book and some CDs. We headed out and grabbed lunch, before we made the drive back home.

We split off to do our own things in TinyTown’s shop, which was having a 50% off sale. I was in their “home decor” room when one of the volunteers was sorting donations in one of the doorways. “Oh my lord, look how big these ties are”, she remarked. She was holding a small cardboard box marked “neckties” in faded grandma penmanship, filled with probably 10-15 vintage ties. I commented that I thought they were fabulous, and I honestly was waiting for them to do another “fill-a-bag” sale to buy all their ties so I could make a skirt.

“Then that’s what you’ll do”, she said, handing me the box. “You’ll take these, grab some more, and we’ll do a bag sale for you.” Not going to argue, I took the box and went into the men’s section to look through the ties. I had just finished telling Shawshank what I was doing when the volunteer came in and said “Here’s the deal. You can take the ties for $2, but you need to take all the ties, and come back to show us ladies the finished project.”

Oh my lord, look at these ties.