Yes, I went thrifting again - April 25, 2012

I have a feeling these posts about my thrift store finds are nobody's favorite posts but mine, but I enjoy them so you shall DEAL WITH IT.

Yesterday I swore I wouldn't buy much and would focus on the few things I did need. I got a bit distracted, but I had a wonderful day hanging out with Amy and just trying things on, figuring out my new body and new size, and spending not much money at all. Also, randomly, it seems like my feet also lost weight - I apparently have gone down a half shoe size. Go figure.

On with the photographic evidence!

First store, the infamous (if you're a regular reader of my blog, anyway) Humane Society. I spent $12 total there for all of the below:

I think I have enough jeans now. Maybe. Er...you'll see. These were the priciest item I bought at the store - two whole dollars! Hehe.

This skirt is adorable - and it has built-in shorts. At first I thought that was a bit...toddler-y. Then I realized it was fantastic. The skirt is a tiny bit shorter than I usually wear - and it doesn't matter! Whee!

Running skort! I was looking for one of these. At least I can see if I like running in something like this for a small investment and then decide if I want to buy a new one. 

Converse All-Star shirt with cute little blue stars.

Fun skirt. I seem to be focusing on browns this spring/summer - I'm on a quest for (new) brown dressy sandals!

Amy has the magic when it comes to finding Thrashers gear. Sigh. This one fits my husband better than it fits me - we can share.

Running shirt.

I'm kind of undecided on this, but Amy convinced me to get it. It's a velour-y/terrycloth beach coverup thing. It's definitely cute and soft and fits. I'll try it out at the pool this summer.

Shirt for the kid. Hard Rock Munich. I'm not big on the Hard Rock shirt thing, but the design (click to see it bigger)  was really cute.

Ladybug pants for the kid.

Old Navy skirt-with-shorts for the kid. Cute design, fun for the summer.

Next up, Value Village. I've said this before, but I used to be a Goodwill-only girl. Then Goodwill jacked up its prices to what I consider to be high-for-a-thrift-store (but still not awful, especially if they have something specific I want - and still cheaper than new!) and Value Village became more appealing. I like that they price things individually, which means you can find a great bargain - especially if you catch a half-price color (their half-price days are also great, though I haven't been to one in a while). The downside is that they INSIST on stapling the tags to things - often creating holes where holes did not need to be created. They also don't have fitting rooms, so you either have to dress creatively (I used to wear skirts with leggings so I could try on pants, but I haven't really had the energy for that lately) or pull things on over clothes (done that) or just take guesses (which I hate - even a dollar on something that doesn't fit and can't be returned is still a wasted dollar). But still. I like Value Village.

Jeans identical to the ones I was wearing yesterday. $5.29, but half-price color = $2.65, hooray!

A bit of a risk on these denim capris as they're Old Navy and my size, but they're also from a few years ago. Old Navy is *terrible* about both vanity sizing and changing what their sizes mean every so often. But I think they'll be OK. $4.29.

Soft T-shirt. Faux vintage! $2.29.

I went back and forth on this shirt but decided it was cute (the letters and stars are sewn on). $2.29.

Favorite find of the day, and I wasn't even going to try it on but Amy convinced me. $5.29 and really hard to get a good picture of it, but it's brown and turquoise and super duper cute. I may even consider posting a picture of me *in* it!

After that, we checked out a new-ish small store and bought nothing (GASP). Finally we hit another super secret local spot. Everything below was $3 - pretty much all of the clothing there is $3 unless there's a sale or something. Also, everything I bought with one exception was a Target brand. It's not what I usually prefer to do, but I liked everything I picked out and while I did score a tank top for $3 at Tarzhay last week due to sale plus coupon bonusness, most of the time even Target prices just aren't THAT low.

I didn't have a plain brown shirt that fit me in my wardrobe. I have lots of newly purchased brownish skirts though, so I fixed that situation. The shirt is a Converse shirt that I'd seen at the store a few times and always passed up. Today I gave in to its charms.

More jeans - see? I should be done now. Except I'd like more skinny jeans - but I probably won't be wearing that style in the summer so it can wait. The top pair is more denim capris - I'm maxed out on those too. Mossimo all around. 

Cute floofy skirt. IT IS THE SUMMER OF SKIRTS.

Also, I blew off tracking Weight Watchers points at dinner and instead ate queso and chips with abandon (and then didn't eat the tortilla on my spinach quesadilla to sort of balance that out). It was too cold to run on Monday (read: I'm a total wuss) so I'm playing catch up today on that too - but the scale still smiles upon me and I'm feeling good about my ability to maintain the weight loss despite reading a scary article that said that pretty much nobody ever manages to do so. EXCEPT ME.

And I drove today for the first time in quite a while and it confirmed that a) I am a perfectly capable driver and b) I HATE DRIVING SO MUCH. But at least I do it? That's a step. The next step is calling the therapist whose phone number I now have sitting in my email inbox.

And we're working on getting the kid set up with hippotherapy. And I find it amusing how many of my friends thought that involved hippopotamuses (hippopotami?) - it doesn't, it's horseback riding therapy. I have high hopes for it (and the kid isn't afraid of horses! and loves them!) so cross your fingers.

The Second (5K) Goes Down a Little Easier - April 14, 2012

This morning I woke up way too early in the much too cold (oh how my blood has thinned since I moved from Massachusetts to Georgia - it's embarrassing!) to run my second "official" 5K.

I mean, I ran a 5K on Wednesday and hit a personal best, but I was all by myself so apparently that doesn't count.

Today's 5K will probably be my last race for some time. It cemented that I simply do not like racing against anyone but myself. It wasn't a fluke - I still don't like the crowds, the jockeying for position, the unknown route (yes, yes, I could have gone before the race and learned the route - for various reasons, that wasn't feasible either this time or last time). I also don't like feeling competitive in a situation in which I am simply not a competitor (yet) - racing brings out my "I am not good enough" feelings for a minute, before I realize that I have been running for a mere 11 weeks - and nine of those were the Couch to 5K program. I have only been running three miles at a time for about three weeks, and I still can't even run that without walking (but never stopping and always walking as fast as I possibly can when I take a break for about 10 seconds at a time).

That said, and despite the fact that today's race was on an uphill incline for much of it, so I walked, I still hit my best time ever. Did I win or place? Nope. Did people I know beat me handily? Yup. Did I run a 9:21 mile? Heck yes. Did I run a 5K in less than 30 minutes? 29:10.

I am doing this for exercise - to improve my body inside and out. My next goal is to run 12 miles a week for a while. At the moment I'm at 10. I'll do 10 for another week (or more, if I feel like it). Then 11. Then 12. I don't actually want to run a 10K or a half-marathon or a marathon. I don't want to run for that distance or that length of time. But I do want to be able to run as fast as I can for three miles. I would love to run an 8 minute mile. I think I might be able to do that sometime, if I stick to this.

But I also want to mix it up. This summer is going to be hot and I probably will switch to DVDs and indoor activities for a while (and playing at the pool). I am a runner, I feel strong, I feel proud - but I don't think my goals are the same as most runners.

Then again, I might get annoyed enough to train for a marathon, just to prove the haters wrong. I've done that before...

Go me.

I started uploading one picture a day to 365project.org/marlatiara - usually one that I also upload to Instagram. There's no real reason why I'm doing both, except that I am. Feel free to look.

Spring Break recap, Instagram, Pinterest, and beyond - April 9, 2012

Last week was very very difficult. Luckily we managed to have plans for at least part of most of the days off from preschool, but my daughter is going through some amazing moves forward and so her behavior has taken a dive. Saying more words/sounds = having more tantrums. Standing unassisted for longer and longer periods of time = having more tantrums.

But in the middle of it all, Instagram was released for Android and I did a little happy dance. Look, I'm pretty much an Apple fangirl. I have a MacBook that is now held together with spit, twine, and hope (anyone who wants to buy me a new or new-to-me one, please feel free-and no, I am not joking). I have an iPod Touch (sadly, a generation or two before a camera was added, but I still use it pretty much daily). My daughter has an iPad2. If I could afford to have an iPhone, I very likely would strongly consider it. I can't. I couldn't figure out how to make that work at all budget-wise. But I could afford an inexpensive ($50 on Black Friday!) Android phone (an LG Optimus V) on a pay-as-you-go plan (Virgin Mobile - $45/month for 1200 minutes - which I never come close to using, so might drop this plan down to a cheaper one - plus unlimited everything else). (I like parentheses.) (A lot.) (I'm sorry.) In any case, I have been intrigued by Instagram for forever and even installed it on the iPad but didn't really use it there - now that it's on Android (AND can move to the SD card - my little phone doesn't have much internal memory but I have an 8 gig card...) I'm using it daily.

You can add me on Instagram - I'm marlatiara. You can also follow me at ink361.com/marlatiara. At the moment I'm using it mostly to be silly and to try things out and play around. I confess, I've always wished to be a great photographer. I don't know why I didn't pursue it further - perhaps my short attention span headed me off at the pass. I am NOT going to become a great photographer using Instagram, but I can pretend.

ETA: Me and my big mouth. Facebook bought Instagram. I really believe that's why the Android app finally appeared - it likely was the final piece of the acquisition puzzle. We'll see what happens now. PicPlz is almost identical (I like some of the filters better, actually) so feel free to find me there too (marlatiara) and I'll see what I do with what I do.

Other Android apps I like for photo editing and/or photo manipulation: Pixlr-o-matic, ActionSnap, FxCamera, Vignette, Retouch, Photo Grid. All are free, all can move to the SD card, and all seem to work well with Instamatic. I also bought IncrediBooth for the iPad (using an iTunes gift card I earned from one of my various earning sites) and ADORE it - that app makes me wish for an iPhone again...or a phone with a front-facing camera.

(And for some speech therapy needs, I just bought an inexpensive laminator, but I'm already also plotting to make things with these new filtered, tweaked, silly pictures too.)

(And speaking of SD card, yes now the ENORMOUS Weight Watchers app can supposedly move there, but I attempted it and it was fail fail fail. I'll have to continue to use the mobile web version on my phone and the far-superior app on my iPod until WW moves into 2012 with the rest of us. Ahem. Streamline that app and make it actually WORK when it moves to the card, would ya?)

Oh and I'm now two months into being a Lifetime member and things are going swimmingly, though Passover has been challenging so far. I'm almost eating too little in fear of eating too much, but I have a whole week to navigate this challenge and then to move on. I have a list of recipes and a fridge full of fresh fruits and vegetables, I'm OK. BUT I DIGRESS.

I'm also on Pinterest, if I haven't mentioned it yet - I'm marlatiara there too (notice a theme?) and you are welcome to add and follow me. Alas, the influx of ridiculous spambots over there (WHY? WHAT IS YOUR POINT, SPAMMERS?) has made me wary of following back, but I'm pretty good at spotting a real person from a fake one so go for it. I pin recipes (healthy-ish, vegetarian, low calorie, some indulgences), DIY projects, fitness tips and inspiration, and more.

Are you on Instagram? Are you on Pinterest? Any other sites/apps that you want me to check out?

Thrifting Post AGAIN! - March 31, 2012

I haven't been thrifting this many times in a short period in quite a while, but I genuinely need a new wardrobe (I'll need to go crazy again in the fall...and winter...). A long time ago, I was in New York City with my grandmother, and we went sorta-thrifting in SoHo and she asked me if I'd stop thrifting if I won the lottery (in a sweet, supportive way, not a "WHY do you do this?" way). I said no. But if I'd won that $500 million, I'd have considered it. (I didn't win. I didn't even win my dollar back.)

So. In between the two stores we hit, my friend and I got to see the Hunger Games movie - the first movie I'd seen in a theater in about a year (I saw Inception in the theater TWICE). The short of it is that the book was better - but it always is - but the movie was well done. In fact, I wish the movie was its own thing, but it's not, it's based on a book, and a lot of it set up books two and three (movies 2-4, I gather).

The Humane Society is my favorite thrift store in the universe. Of what is pictured below, everything was $1 except three things were 50 cents, according to my receipt. I have no idea what was what - I guess the kid jeans were 50 cents and maybe the two T-shirts? - I just go there and buy what I want and don't worry about prices. There is NOWHERE ELSE on the planet where I can say that! I don't think I've ever spent more than $20 there and at this point 50% of my wardrobe is probably from there...

Here's what I got:

Old Navy jeans for the kid. Because she can never have enough jeans.

Workout capris that are adorable.

Cute, casual Old Navy skirt.

Two pairs of Old Navy capris. The brown ones in the back were in my "maybe"  pile until I said "Well, they're a dollar and I don't have enough shorts yet so I might as well." The blue ones I love.

I decided this is the summer of wearing skirts. Throw on a skirt and a black T shirt and I'm good to go. This one is less shiny than it appears, more flowy. And the design is textured. It's cute.

Guiness T-shirt (hard to see). Super soft. Probably this was 50 cents.

I know it's awful, but it's also so funny. Probably also 50 cents. Haven't tried it on but it looked like it would fit.

Not shown, because the picture came out terrible, two pairs of black yoga/running pants - Champion and Danskin. Super comfy!

Then we hit the other indie thrift store in the area. No sales today (unlike last time), so everything basically was $3 - except that I bought 6 things and paid $16 plus tax, so something wasn't $3 but I really don't know what.

My "breaking out of my comfort zone" skirt. It's a bit pinker in person, and it fits really nicely. Ann Taylor Loft even. And my friend Amy happened to have the perfect brown top to go with it. Now I need an excuse to wear it. Like grocery shopping.

Terrible picture of two workout tank tops. The orange one is Champion and has a built-in bra - and is very similar to one I bought at Target for a lot more than $3.

The cat liked this Old Navy long-sleeved shirt (which may have been the $2 wildcard).

I don't know what is up with my awful camera work today, but this is a black - really black! - J Crew skirt. It's a bit faded but I got it to be summer casual so who cares. 

Love this skirt - Old Navy linen. I know, I know, linen wrinkles if you talk to it, but this one seems like it might hold up OK. The black is still black, and it made me want to twirl. It used to have a belt but that's missing - I guess I'll have to thrift another one!

The end!

My First 5K - March 24, 2012

Well, I did it! I completed my first 5K!

Here are my stats: http://www.rundouble.com/#map/634280

I ran the entire thing in just over 32 minutes, and my pace was 10:18/mile. This was not only my first time running this particular route, but it was my first time running a route that was anything but flat with perhaps a few gentle but frustrating hills. This route had HILLS. I ran some of them, I walked some of them. This was also my first time running for that long a time and that long a distance - last Thursday I completed week 8 of the Couch to 5K program and ran 2.76 miles - if I hadn't had this planned, Monday would've been my first 3 mile run. (Instead it will be my second!)

What sucked was that although I drank a ton of lemon water about an hour before I headed out (trying to balance hydration with a need to pee - TMI, perhaps, but before the race I still had to hoof it over to a local fast food shop...), I still became dehydrated. First the back of my throat went unbearably dry - but I've dealt with that before. But then I got...THE PAIN. The evil, awful pain. I know this pain well, I've dealt with it many times before. And one of the very first days of the Couch to 5K program, it also struck - but for a change I was very determined and didn't throw my hands up and say "running sucks, this sucks, I quit."

What I'm talking about is a knife-like pain in my ribcage - and it gets worse if I run, makes it hard to breathe, and is all together rather miserable to experience. It's been suggested to me that it is related to hydration and I'm fairly certain that is exactly what it is. But I've been so on top of being hydrated during my training that it has disappeared completely and I thought I was in the clear - but the truth is that when I run on a regular day, I leave my house and start running within minutes, where today I had to get to the venue, wait around, get situated...and too much time had passed. I guess I didn't plan very well, and I'm not advanced enough to carry water with me - so when the pain hit, I had to walk for a longer stretch than I usually walk. And of course once it all clicked in my head, I noticed empty cups on the ground, looked back, and sure enough I'd run past the one and only water station on the race route. Damn.

At first I got really upset. I thought I'd blown the whole thing and I was really disappointed. Then I took a deep breath and I walked as fast as I could. And then I tried sprinting. And eventually adrenaline took back over and the pain faded to the background and I was back to running - I think that saved my time, and I think that my overall time would've been SO much better without that setback. Oh well - a lesson learned for the next 5K I'm doing in a few weeks. (yup)

What else have I learned so far? I don't think I like running in crowds. I don't like figuring out how to navigate someone who is too slow in front of me or a cluster of people I want to pass. I don't like that big mush of people at the beginning. I don't like realizing I need to walk and navigating to the side. I prefer the runs I've been doing that are usually just me or just one other person. And I don't think - at this time - that I'm interested in pushing to a 10K or beyond. Probably.

On the other hand, I did end this 5K feeling absolutely amazing, not too terribly exhausted at all. I like this distance, I like this pace. I like feeling this major sense of accomplishment. I love looking back over the past two months and seeing how far I've come and how fast I've gotten. I love finally feeling in shape - I think I'm in the best shape of my entire life at this moment, actually.

When the race ended, I was in a daze, trying to cool down and keep moving and fill out my scorecard (in my shakiest handwriting ever) and figure out where the hell I was. I stumbled around trying to find water and failed for a while until my AMAZING friend Lindsay (click that - her blog is awesome in general and in that particular post is a picture of me with the fam, pre-race. no really, CLICK IT) and her gorgeous girls found me and helped me figure out what I'd done and get hydration and a banana and find my husband and my girl (who both cheered from the sidelines as I ran past them twice!).

But really, truly, I felt - and still feel - great!

So. Onward and upward. One more official week of the Couch to 5K and then I may try the program to improve my time or just keep on running three times a week. And maybe, just maybe, I'll try to push myself to run a 10K sometime in the fall. Maybe.

Learning about Running and Weight Loss and Stuff - March 21, 2012

I'm getting ready to head out for my daughter's IEP meeting (for pre-K! PRE-K! I can't even believe that...) and I thought I'd get some of this ramble out of my head.

First, I'm kicking ass and taking names with the Couch to 5K program. I'm about to finish week 8 and my first official 5K is this weekend. I still can't run the entire thing, but I also don't stop - I take a few seconds to catch my breath as I walk at a fast clip and then I go again. I sprint. I race with myself. I tell myself "You can stop at that mailbox. At that driveway. At the end of this song." So far, so good. Today I ran a 10:09 pace. I'm really, really proud of that.

My playlist is now sort of settling. For a while I used timed playlists created by others, but once the intervals of run/walk/run ended, I made my own. Here's what I'm running to at the moment:

1. Supa Shoppa by Blur (warmup)
2. Stars Above Us by Saint Etienne (warmup ends, run begins)
3. It's Tricky by Run DMC (and I'm off)
4. Raspberry Swirl by Tori Amos (current goal is to run without walking until the end of this song - I now can just about do it)
5. Paparazzi by Lady Gaga (even if I'm walking for a second or four, there are spots in this song that I always run through)
6. Hey Ya! by Outkast (this gives me a burst of energy and I always run through the "all right all right all right" and "shake it" parts, no matter how tired I am)
7. Baby Got Back by Sir Mixalot (I have found my energy flags here - this song is good for getting me going again, but I may need something else to replace it soon)
8. United State of Pop 2010 by DJ Earworm (a mashup of a bunch of popular songs - it begins a bit slow - I usually take a break - and as it ends, Beyonce is telling me to go faster and faster and stronger and stronger)
9. Merry by Magnapop (and when I hear this, I know I'm almost done)
10. Do You Sleep by Lisa Loeb (cool down!)
11. Crazy Town by Velocity Girl (end of cool down!)

I'm entering my second month of being a Weight Watchers Lifetime Member and it's going really well as I navigate how this new normal works. I still track almost everything I eat and still count points - I can't imagine not doing it at this stage, although I took one night off from tracking when I was out with a friend and knew I was both making decent choices and had enough points left in my weekly/activity bank to be OK. I also made sure that I got right back into tracking the next morning - that I didn't use that one night as an excuse to stop.

I went out this week to a fancy, famous-for-a-TV-connection restaurant with some out of town guests. Maybe it was that I'm a vegetarian and this restaurant focused on decidedly not so much (while having many choices on the menu for me), but it felt almost easy. The menu didn't scare me (like it did when I started WW) and I knew I would be OK.

I knew I'd go over my daily points, but I also knew what my bad habits were and decided not to fall into them. I ordered what I wanted, but I didn't order every single thing I wanted. I chose a mixed drink instead of a milkshake and I didn't get both, which is a major victory in my life, I swear. I had tastes of others' dishes but did not make sure I had ordered one thing from every menu section. I didn't get dessert. (I used to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get dessert, no matter how full I was. I actually don't know if this place offers dessert, but I didn't make sure I found myself some at the nearby favorite-cupcake-place-ever or an ice cream shop either.) 

What I learned from the experience was that I could go out, have a good time, even overindulge just a bit, but feel happy and satisfied and not bloated and horrible. I could go someplace special and not have to make food be part of the overall experience - the experience was the friends, the ambiance, the way the waiter acted, and yes, the flavors. But not the "MUST HAVE IT ALL MAY NEVER GET HERE AGAIN" feeling I used to know too well. The new normal. Here it is. (I also made up the points for this - probably overestimating - based on a few factual things and some guesses. But I did track it all. I held myself accountable.)

So that's where I'm at. People are noticing the change in me. I'm noticing the change in me. 

And now...off to the IEP meeting...

Thrifting Post Again! - March 15, 2012

You love it! You do! It's another thrifting post!

I was going to make another vlog about the finds, but I decided that I prefer to have a photographic catalog of my finds so I can look back and see what's what. So you get pictures - scroll on by!

The backstory is that as you saw on Wordless Wednesday, my clothes from last summer no longer fit me (hooray! for a change this is a good thing!). I sold the shorts in that picture to someone else (the smaller shorts will appear in a bit) as well as another pair and I used that money plus a little bit more to fill in some gaps in my summer wardrobe. My goal was shorts. I fell a bit short of that goal but I still did really well and do have new summer clothes in happy-making sizes - and of course I got my daughter even more clothing because I cannot resist clothes that are 50 to 70 cents a piece for high-end brands. (Yes, I'd just hit some half-price days at local consignment sales and got her things, but the pickings were slim this year and she still needed a few more things.)

We hit three stores, we bought things at two. The third store, an indie store with an excellent charitable background, was overpriced when compared to the other two (as in, if you only went in that one you'd probably think the prices were fine - they were in line with Goodwill prices) but it did have some gorgeous refinished furniture that I coveted - it was appropriately priced and actually a STEAL for what it was.

(I used to lovingly Photoshop every picture to adjust for color and cropping and...yeah, I just don't have the energy for that anymore so I only did it to some of them.)

Store #1 - All clothes were 30% off. Which is ridiculous since everything was so cheap already!

Click to see this bigger. These are MINI BODEN cords for my kid. They are in nearly perfect condition (there's a spot on one that won't show) and adorable with hearts on the knees and butt. They will fit her in the fall for sure. They were 70 cents each. I died.

More kid clothes. Three pairs of jeans (one has a tiny rip in the back pocket, no big) - two Old Navy, one Carters. One pair of capri leggings. 70 cents each. Yeah yeah yeah.

Two T-shirts that actually fit me. Ann Taylor Loft, Gap. Pretty sure these were $2 each.

I am in love with this shirt. Old Navy. $2.

Squishy comfy Old Navy shirt. $2.

Workout/running shirts - $2 each (the tank may have been $1-something). Because of these, I'll be able to return the Target-on-clearance shirt I bought the other day, because I got these three for less than I paid for that one.

Cords from Express - $2.

The Wordless Wednesday shorts! Identical to what I wore last year, but many sizes smaller. $1-ish.

Super-soft Gap pants. They're a bit long but they'll look great with boots/heels. $2.

Old Navy capris that I am in love with, Gap capris that are OK and comfy. $1-ish each. Now I just need to find shoes to go with these.

Then onward to the Humane Society store which has amazingly ridiculously cheap everyday prices - but not always the selection that other stores have, so finds are extra exciting. (Oh, is that just me?) I mostly got things for the kid because kid clothes are always 50 cents a piece...yeahhhhh.

Impossible-to-photograph super soft/swingy/stretchy black skirt. $1. I have another skirt that is similar - good for pulling on with a T-shirt to feel "dressed up" when I'm not really.

Ridiculous faux-retro T-shirts for me - 50 cents each. The belt was $1 - I've been looking for a wide, stretchy belt to try with some of my longer shirts and/or dresses. We'll see. For $1 it was worth the risk that it will suck and if it's good, I might splurge on a nicer one.

 Everything else was 50 cents a piece and is for the kid...

American Girl Store Atlanta shirt. I basically bought this because I was amused realizing that at the store itself this shirt is probably $20 or something. My kid has zero interest in that sort of thing but will look cute in it.

Kid pants! The Old Navy brown pants turn into capris with a roll and a button and a VOILA!

The green skirt/shorts combo is Gymboree. The purple shorts are Old Navy.

SUPER sweet Gymboree spring sweater.

And finally, something that my friend found for me at the Humane Society when I wasn't with her. She paid $2 for this. TWO DOLLARS.

A real not-freebie-or-giveaway but $150-ish Thrashers jersey that FITS ME. RIP Atlanta Thrashers, I miss you still. I can wear this to Gwinnett Gladiators games! Seriously, it's perfect.