Oh for the love of Thrifting. Sigh.

A few events took place today that led to a thrifting excursion.  I've been hating Dish network more and more lately.  The bill keeps going up, and channels I love keep disappearing from our plan, etc. (I need AMC people!).  And, event two,  I went mama bear cleaning in Coco's closet and decided she needed a new bookcase.

So, we switched to Direct TV, and the cable guy could not hook up the new cable to the TV in the bedroom.  Ok, in fairness to Direct TV,  I think it was my sister's TV from college.  It was old.

We set out to Lowe's for wood so Jojo could just whip up a bookcase (he is good that way), but we were unmotivated by the lumber section, and decided to go to the creepy thrift store across the street and look for an old bookcase.

We found a perfect tall cream bookcase for $4 (for coco), a small old cherry red bookcase for $3 (for me), and two embroidered pillows.  As we were getting ready to check out, Joe noticed the hand scribbled sign that said "all TV's $5."  "Hey, we need a TV!" he yelled over his shoulder as he ran back into the creepy basement where the TVs are.

It's one of those weird thrift stores where nothing has a price.  You have to wait for the lady with the peg leg (a.k.a., my arch thrifting nemesis see here), to come and haggle things out with you.  She is so authoritative, like she is taking you for everything you have.  I don't really care...just give me a price!

We hashed that out and she disappeared.  I was then left to deal with cashier #2.  The following events actually happened, and I was absolutely nice to her through the entire thing.

Me:  "My husband has a TV in the basement...he left it by the loading dock.  Can we just pick it up at the loading dock so he doesn't have to haul it up here?"

Her:  "No!  You cannot go into the loading dock!"  (panicked).

Joe:  "It's ok, I took it off the loading dock and set in on a couch down there."

Me:  "Um, alright.  It's just really heavy and that would be easier.  But ok - do you have someone that will lug it upstairs and out to the car then?"

Her:  "Yes we do!" in kind of a snippety I told you so sort of tone.  "Jerry!!"  she yelled.

*in comes Jerry, a thin and frail elderly gentleman*

Her:  "Jerry, there is a TV somewhere on a couch downstairs.  Can you take it out to their car?"

Jerry:  "No.  I'm making a sandwich right now.  Do you want a sandwich?"  (oblivious to our very existence).

Her:  "Jerry, can you help them when you are done?"

Jerry:  "I'll need to go put away all of my sandwich making materials.  I don't want the mice to get into them."  ....walks away.

By this point, Joe had already lugged the heavy ass TV out to the car, and I just wanted to pay and leave. My total for the two bookcases, two pillows, and one flat screen TV was $13.  The cashier was so busy saying "you know, she really should have charged you more for those pillows," that she only ran my card for $8.59 (totally random).  As she proceeded with the second transaction, I noticed a beautiful art deco print on the wall behind the counter.

Me - "How much is that painting?"

Her - "I've never seen that painting before in my life, but tomorrow everything is 30 % off.  Tomorrow really is a better day to shop here."

Sigh.  All for the love of thrifting!!

Apparently I need to go back tomorrow.

xoxo, e.