#17 Bargains - Olivia

Please forgive for my tardiness this week.  I've been sick, Thanksgiving reared it's glutenous head, and the first climatically seriously snowfall fell continuously throughout the week.  But without further ado, let's talk bargins.

First, I have another confession for this blog.

Somehow, I have been classically conditioned to feel the call of nature whilst in the presence of perceivably good deals.  I think the comes from a reoccurring experience I had as a little girl of going shopping with my mother, having to deal with a little girl bladder, and being almost to that finish line when she would get held up by a sale, a clearance sign, or a bargin bin.

I guess eventually I just began associating one with the other.

It's probably one of those extremely rare conditions.  Like never nudes.

Today, before I can even consider the potential of a thrift store, yard sale, or dollar store, I have to tend to a more pressing need.  This is easier said than done because businesses designed to save you money are also designed to cut corners, which translates to no public bathrooms nine times out of ten.   What is a girl to do?

Good question, reader.  If you're at a yard sale, you're fresh out of luck.  It took me at least three weeks to feel confortable enough to wander past the other cubicles on the way to washroom at work.  I just don't know if I have it in me to ask a stranger to let me use their facilities.  It's weird, I know.  But we must proceed.  You need to channel the pressure of the situation into a divide and conquer mode.  Be picky and honest.  Do I need this?  Is it worth $3?  Do I really look good in orange?  There is no lingering, only instantaneous decision making.  Stand by all the decisions you make.

If you find yourself at a thrift store, evaluate the situation.  Take in your whereabouts, consider your options, and act.  We all know that the best bargins exist, not so much in a geographical location, but in a state of mind.  If you are ready for deals, they will find you.   But you can't be ready to let those deals into your life if you're on a full tank.

Some thrift stores do have bathrooms.  Out here in the west, we have Deseret Industries instead of Salvation Armies and they're built near identical.  You can navigate both if you can navigate one.  They build Goodwills out of whatever they can find, so that's not always a guarantee.  The best thrift stores are of course holes in the wall.  My favorite, Re-Use Industries in Athens, is notoriously sketchy and cheap. And without a ladies room, but that goes without saying.   In those instances, I suggest going next door to take care of the emergency and move on with your life.   Luckily, New to You is not far at all from Re-Use, and it does have a public bathroom.  (Well, sort of.  It goes between being public and for employees only, but I use it regardless.)

The real trouble is in the dollar store.  First, let it be said that I adore the dollar store.  I am never disappointed by the whimsy of a dollar store.  Canned cheese doodles next to pizza flavored toothpase, behind glass figurines of clown-dogs?  What will they think of next?!  I could wander these aisles for hours, wondering who puts together the double feature DVDS that include one Marlon Brando western and a Betty Boop cartoon, or who creates the prototypes for the bizarre ceramic figures.  Dollar stores are brimming with wonder and fascination at a very affordable price.

But we all know my hold-up.  First thing is first.  If you can locate a loo, do it.  If not, you have a couple of options.  You can either grin and bear it, or you can distract yourself.  Start with a piece of gum.  Tune into the loudspeaker jamz, they're normally pretty fantastic.  Luckily, you're in a dollar store and you're surrounded by distractions.  You're going to be ok.

The only setting I can imagine real struggle with is Bargain Billy's in the Plains, Ohio.  It's the perfect storm of reuse, discount, and surplus.  I have no idea if it's still open (I have a sneaking suspicion it is), but my dusty memory only provides sensations of being overwhelmed.  It was crazy in there, from what I recall.  They had everything from memorabilia to garden decor.  There was no way to truly determine the worth of a deal because of how peculiar the items were.  I recall even their pop-machine having weird flavors.  And of course there would be no bathroom in sight.  Plus, you probably purchased a weird flavored pop.  You could walk down to the library, but you're pushing your lucky compadre.

You could say it was more than you bargained for.

HA ha HA ha HA ha HA ha HA ha HA ha HA!  This is the part where you probably just peed your pants.

Sometimes you get the deal, and sometimes the deal gets you.