What A Deal!

I was out of town this weekend with JD of Walk It Off!. We attended a state conference of a group we're both members of which was held at Lake of the Ozarks.

It takes about three hours to get to the Lake, which is southwest of St. Louis. Although our first obligation wasn't until Friday night after dinner, we left mid-morning in order to do some shopping at some of JD's favorite thrift shops in Jefferson City. She drove, because her car gets better gas mileage than mine. It was a beautiful day, with a cloudless blue sky. I soon shed the jacket I was wearing as the sun warmed the inside of the car.

I haven't seen JD for a couple of weeks, so we spent the time talking about our families, friends, and mutual acquaintances. We made one pit stop, and before I knew it we were getting off the Interstate at Kingdom City and heading south towards Jefferson City. After one wrong turn, she found the correct street for our first stop, a huge Goodwill store where I found a perfect pair of black pants for work for only $3.00

After a nice lunch, we headed to The Bag Lady Exchange, which sells purses, clothes, accessories, and shoes. We walked into the front room, which was full of purses hanging along the walls. A second small room off to the right was devoted to shoes, and everything else was in a larger room straight ahead. The clothes were attractively arranged on round racks, and the accessories were displayed in various places around the room. After checking out the clothes, I moved over to a display of purses, where I spied the distinctive quilted fabric of a Vera Bradley bag. This one was a combination of greens and blues with a tiny amount of black and white for accents.

I took the purse off its hook. It was the perfect size, and when I opened the zippered top I found out it was loaded with pockets inside. The straps fit nicely on my shoulder. I don't need another purse, but I took a look at the price tag. Full-sized Vera Bradley bags sell for somewhere between $50-$75 dollars, depending on the size and pattern, so when I saw this purse was priced at $25 I seriously considered buying it. The sales clerk saw me looking at the purse and told me it was on clearance. The price was now half the posted price.

SOLD!