Clothes

Like most every woman in this country, I have more sizes of clothes in my closet than many department stores.   Even though I thought I'd purged myself of all of those small clothes that I hadn't worn in years, I've been amazed by the fact that I've found clothes to wear.  As a result, I have just now begun to need to buy new clothes.   I've bought most of my 'on the way down' clothes at Goodwill and Ladies of Charity.  It is surprising what nice clothes can be found at those places.  I've been saving my mileage reimbursement checks and other 'found' money to use for a huge shopping spree when I get to my goal. 

I decided a few weeks ago to dip in to my savings and actually go shopping in a real store.  I got some coupons from Stein Mart, one for 20% off a regular priced item and one for 20% off a clearance item.  I'd planned my outing for Saturday so I'd have plenty of time to peruse. 

Sadly, I woke up that morning with a screaming headache, a call in to work sick type headache.  I tried all the remedies in my arsenal because I felt compelled to go shopping that day.  Finally, my head eased to a dull throb and I headed out.  I definitely looked like I didn't feel good, I had on no makeup, and a raggedy hoodie, but I was going shopping - yes, indeed!!

One of the first people I saw upon entering the store was a woman that I worked with about 20 years ago.  Back in my, relatively speaking, thin days.  She had a modeling agency on the side, and I did a little modeling for her.  (I'll do another blog about that later, maybe.)  I was a good 40 pounds heavier than the last time I'd seen her despite of the weight loss.  My first instinct was high tail it out of there! 

I've been working on the pride thing, so I went up to her and said hello.  She remembered me, and to her great credit, she did not say anything about how gross I looked.  I confessed that I'd been much heavier, and had lost 70 lbs, and that I was sprucing up my wardrobe.  She steered me in to a dressing room and started bringing me clothes.  I felt like I was in a movie with all of the attention she was giving me.  It was great!  I made my selections and went to pay.

I had an arm load of purchases and as I was approaching the line, another lady walked up with one item.  I stopped and told her to go in front of me.   She acted as if that was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her and told me that my kindness would be rewarded.  Just then another cash register opened up.  She nodded at me, so that I would recognized that my kindness was already being rewarded.  Little did she know...

I laid my selections down on the counter and got out my coupons.  The cashier started looking through the items trying to find the most expensive regular priced item and the most expensive clearance item, so that I could get the most out of my coupons.  I thanked her for that, and told her, again swallowing my pride, that I was buying so many things because I'd lost a lot of weight.  She kindly asked what I had done and how much I'd lost.  I told her briefly about my plan and that my loss so far was 70 lbs. She was so impressed that she stopped looking for the highest priced items and gave me 20% off my entire purchase!!!

Swallowing my pride got me great service and saved me a bunch of money,  and my kindness was very generously repaid!!