Cup Status: Full
Today, I convinced my husband to leave work a little bit earlier than normal so that we could head to a larger town near where we live and go thrifting and then go out to dinner. It did not take too much from me to get him to agree. Lol! I got the kids and myself ready to go and as soon as he arrived home, we piled in the car and headed off to have some fun! We stopped at the first thrift shop and looked around for treasures. I struck out and so did my husband, but my daughter found a feminist Barbie that I thought was kind of interesting and then she found a Disney princess rolling suitcase that she just had to have. My son came home with a nerf gun and a cat piano. So, not too bad for out first stop. I had wanted to stop here to buy something that I had seen a few weeks before, but had decided not to buy during that trip. Unfortunately, it was no longer there. I never learn. I must follow the cardinal rule of thrifting. If I see something that I want, I have to buy it then or it might not be there later. Sigh.
So, we were off to store number two where we took advantage of the 50% off on shoes sale! My daughter fell in love with some princess high tops and came home with them. I was able to find several items that I have been looking for and it caused me to break out in a happy dance! The first item I found is the first volume in the Anne of Green Gables series (the one re-published when I was a kid). I had lost it somewhere along the line and really wanted to re-complete my set because it was my favorite series when I was growing up and to see the first volume missing made me so sad. But, not anymore. The pastel pink cover again sits next to its other pastel counterparts ready for me to dive in and experience the triumphs and despairs of my favorite Ann-with an “E”. Then, I was able to add to my grandma-chic collection of copper and pink aluminum Jell-O molds. I found a matching set of flower-ish molds, a bag full of matching mini-bundt style molds, and the ever-illusive rooster mold! I was so excited! My son didn’t find anything that he wanted because he has a very particular list of things that he likes and doesn’t like.
We then headed to the third and final thrift store where the 50% off shoe sale provided my daughter with the best buy of the day! She found a pair of metallic gold, light-up, roller sneakers in her size! They were the exact same ones that are currently on her Amazon wish list. She was so excited! I also found two more Jell-O molds to add to my collection! A round one with cherry imprints in it and a star shaped one. This was the day for molds! Some days I don’t find any molds and then, today, it was AWESOME!!! My husband did finally find a speaker that he can use for his home studio set up, so that was awesome too! My son used his shopping time to visit the skittle machine at the front of the store several times and he did start to make it clear that he was ready to eat. My husband seconded the dinner vote and away we went.
We decided to head to one of our favorite restaurants. It had been closed for quite some time for renovations and we hadn’t been able to eat there in forever. As we drove up to the new façade, it was crazy how different it looked and yet how familiar it was at the same time. This restaurant holds a special place in my heart. It is a place that I ate at and shared pitchers of beer with friends on countless occasions. It is where groups of my fellow student teachers gathered to share our stories of triumph and woe. It is where I took my family when they came to visit me during college and after I settled to live in my college town. It is where my husband and I had our second date. It is the first restaurant we took our first born to. During the Covid 19 shut down, I made sure to order take out from there to help support them. So, when we walked inside and it looked so completely different, it was a bit weird at first, but then, I saw the table by the window where I sat so many times before. I saw the same footprint, just with upgraded finishes and realized that with so much of my life, the footprint is the same, but the finishes are different. Some might be an upgrade from the me of the past, some might need a bit of a renovation, let’s be honest, but when I walk around inside, I still see all of the good memories that are there and all of the great days that are to come. It’s so odd how important places like this bring up so much. The flavor of the cheese garlic bread was exactly the same as the first time I tasted it. The flavor of the pesto cream sauce, exactly the same. The house dressing on the side salad, the same. The person eating it, not the same. I sat there with my husband and two of my three children and watched all of us enjoying a meal while I looked over at the table by the window where it all began 20 years ago and it was such a surreal moment. The two people who sat at that other table had no idea what their lives were going to be like 20 years later, but it is a beautifully, chaotic life. The cheese garlic bread used to have leftovers when it was just the two of us. We only needed one bread basket. Now, we were lucky to get a piece each of bread from the basket and a piece of cheese garlic bread as our children descended on both like they had never seen bread before (they most certainly have eaten plenty of bread). Lol! We finished up our meal, paid the bill, and walked out the same doorway that I had countless times before, but I was a much different person than the one who first walked through that door, but I wasn’t so different that I didn’t want dessert, so we headed off to get some frozen goodness and then to head home from our day of adventure and fun.
The Cup 
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