random thoughts – Day 1,532 – (Wednesday) – shopping spree

Dayum. Wednesday already. Stay-cation week is blowing by at a breakneck pace and I am not a fan of the accelerated timeline. Of course, the week was booked with no plans in sight. Once it was on the calendar, I looked for last minute trip specials and art, dance, or writing workshops. Nope, nope, nope.

Today, I saw a post about the big writers conference in Clarksville, which I was part of as an onsite photographer and attendee during its first year, many moons ago. This year’s edition is next week, after I’m back at work and when it’s kind of too late to swap my vacation to next week. Maybe next year I can get it on my radar early enough to plan for and attend.

Today I at least left the house. The weekly Aldi email came this morning and there was a pair of cute sandals shown. I was sufficiently motivated and out the door and on the road to the closest Aldi in Salem, NH (eight miles). Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that living in a decent-sized city would require me traveling to another town for practically everything or relying on online orders. But I digress.

Not bad for a grocery store swimsuit.

The Salem store had a few pieces of several previously featured items in the special finds aisle. There were a few pairs of sneakers (not my size) and a couple one-piece swimsuits, a terry beach robe, but none of the sandals I went there for. I got a teal colored swimsuit for a vacation week in October with actual plans, some parmesan, salsa, and a few other food items. It's my first time buying a swimsuit in a grocery store.

I was already out and about in New Hampshire, so I headed over to the next-closest Aldi in Nashua. They had some different items from previous features -- sneakers, cute skirts and cute tops (none in my size), a patterned swimsuit, and a leftover windbreaker featured weeks and weeks ago that was on clearance today for $7.49. And no black floral dressy sandals. 

I left that Aldi with a pink and orange patterned swim suit (for that vacation with plans), a windbreaker that coordinates with the swimsuit (but will probably never be worn together), ice cream, cookies, and a frozen pizza (none of which will help with the swim suit fit, but vacation calories don’t count, right?).

Now mine -- 25 yards of dip dyed splendor.

The day’s mail delivered a new 25-yard skirt bought for our next dance performance. It’s purple and black, the color scheme I wanted years ago when the troupe first got the skirts. Another dancer had already claimed purple and back then we were trying to not duplicate skirt colors. The troupe has grown a bit since then, a couple skirt colors left with departing dancers, and I have grown a bit tired of my aqua skirt. The skirts are still sold and I had been obsessively checking for purple, but it hadn’t been available in forever. 

Then, a series of events happened. Last week I sent the vendor a message asking if they would ever have the skirt in purple again. Sunday in class, I told another dancer how I had been trolling the site for purple. Monday, my friend from class sent me a text with a link to a purple skirt, asking if it was what I talked about. It was ordered within minutes and arrived today. Now I get to shop for purple costume jewelry. We belly dancers kid around that we dance because we like buying sparkly things and jewelry. It certainly is a big benefit. 

I should buy some accessories this week while I’m on vacation, because just like calories, vacation shopping sprees don’t count. Right?