Solitary Wanderings

I went shopping today.  I needed to get out of the house.  I started with a thoroughly unsatisfactory trip to get some new clothing (as I find all trips to buy clothing to be, really) thanks to the shoddy attitudes of the people who "waited on me," a term I use with the greatest of ironies.  Only when they realized that despite my refugee appearance that I was actually going to be a fairly large sale did they act like I had suddenly become visible.  By that time, I was pulling the charge card out of my wallet and slapping it down on the counter, thinking, "Oh MAN, I wish you worked on commission...."  You see, believe it or not, I've done the whole retail-clothing salesperson song and dance before, lads and lasses.  That isn't how you do it.  Grrr.....  Excuse me for not dressing like the cover of Vogue on a Saturday to go to shops here in Podunk when it's raining.  Excuse me for interrupting your own personal shopping and/or conversations taking place across the store.  Yes.  My Bad.  Next time, I will be sure to take my business elsewhere so as not to disturb you.

Anyway.

After I took care of that little chore, I went to my favorite junktique.  By this time, it was raining fit to flood something, but it was pleasant on the metal roof of the giant building.  There were lots of people in the flea market, but it's so large that it still wasn't crowded.  I stayed for several hours just taking the time to be solitary and unhurried, looking at whatever caught my fancy.  It was nice.  I wasn't in a very sociable mood, so the background roar of the rain and the empty stalls filled with oddments and antiques were the perfect location for me today.

I managed to find several things I like, as I always do when I go there, including two new pieces of furniture, a stool for my classroom to replace the rickety one that has been cobbled together twice now and is on, quite literally, its last legs, and a small library table that I can store books under here at home.  I love them, but they're very hard to find.  This one has lovely decoration on it, so I was glad to find it.  I brought home the obligatory owl as well, and a box to keep some stationery in that's been refurbished in a brilliant purple paint.

I saw a couple of other things I would have liked to have had, but really, if I can't use it actively, I am trying not to bring it home now.  With the exception of the owls and the PEZ I collect, I don't really do that with other things.  That's how you wind up with a house full of junk and nowhere to put it.  Until I can get the back of the house cleaned out, which is already filled up with junk that is not even my own, I don't want to add to the problem myself.  Maybe this summer will be the summer I get back there and massively purge.  That's my plan, anyway. I want to go back there and reclaim those two rooms, lay hands on things, say, "Nobody uses this anymore," and ruthlessly kick that crap out of my house.  Now as to whether or not that actually happens....

In any case, today's trip was good.  Even getting the clothes was necessary if not all pleasant.  It was nice to be anonymous me (well, mostly.  I didn't see more than two people who knew me.) and have no one make any demands or need anything from me.  Sometimes I need to be totally alone in order to get myself pulled back together, to keep the world from rubbing me raw.  Today was restorative, and I feel much better for having taken the time, even in the outrageous rain, to do it.