#goodwill-bound

In happier news, I donated this horrible Lady Bug Pillow Pet, which was once a very...thoughful...and loving...gift, from Brett.  Hooray!

This is the fourth and final shirt that was generously donated to this cause by Gail & Charlie, a lovely couple I know from church.  A huge THANK YOU! goes out to them for all the garments they sent my way, including this one that probably brings back fond memories of their trip to Mexico!  I appreciate their help and their donations, and sincerely hope they won't mind that this is the one and only time I'll be wearing it!  Gail told me she didn't want any of these back, so after I check to make sure that's still accurate I'll be sending this one off to Goodwill, to find a new home with someone who needs it more than I do. I'm sure Monterrey is a cool place, but this shirt has seen better days.  The blue and greens in the print were done in such a thick layer of ink that they are now slightly sticky to the touch, and there's a whole collection of stains and marks near the bottom, the lasting scars of something that must have gone horribly awry while this was riding somebody's torso.  The garment was made in Mexico, so that's nifty; so often you buy a souvenir and come to find out it was made in a completely different place, so it's cool that this one was born and raised where it was eventually sold.  The fabric is a bit stiff, and it could stand to be a little longer in the back for my tastes.  Thanks again to Charlie & Gail for all the shirts and support, and I hope this post has given them one more chance to smile at this shirt before it begins a new adventure with someone else!

When the coach gives you this look, you know you're in for it. Size: XL | Fabric: 50% Cotton, 50% Polyester | Made by / in: Fruit of the Loom / El Salvador Had Since: 2010? | Price: $3 | Times Worn: ~2? I am not a coach, nor would any sensible person Want me to be a coach; I have some Very strong opinions about how certain games should be played, I am short-tempered, and have little tolerance for team members who don't perform to their full potential.  Thankfully, I didn't have to coach youth soccer to get this shirt - I bought it at Goodwill.  I love soccer, and I love "coach" shirts for some weird reason, and I really dig the color of this garment.  That having been said, I really don't wear this one very often, and it will most likely be heading back to Goodwill come 2013. In other news, looks like I'm wearing a soccer shirt tomorrow, too.  Probably wouldn't have worn this one today if I'd remembered that this morning, but I'm really not sure what I would have worn in its place.  I'm running low on Goodwill shirts now, so there will probably only be one Goodwill Wednesday per month for the rest of this project.  Enjoy 'em while you can, folks!

"...take this job and give it to someone else..." ~Atmosphere, "Lost And Found"

I know what you're thinking - I was shocked to discover I owned a practice pad, too. Size: XXL | Fabric: 50% Cotton, 50% Polyester | Made by / in: Jerzees / Mexico Had Since: 2010? | Price: $3 | Times Worn: ~2 I don't know about making "perfect," but practice certainly makes "better," and that's a good place to start. It's Goodwill Wednesday, so I know this will come as quite a shock: I bought this shirt at Goodwill.  I don't know much of anything about Bartonville, where this shirt was apparently originally distributed, except that it is the home of Tyroni's, and they have breadsticks and cheese sauce to write home about.  If I ever leave home I intend to write about them.  So, yeah, I don't know what the "Kidz Rock" was...a Vacation Bible School thing?  A concert?  I'd say your guess is as good as mine, but I don't feel comfortable making value judgements about your guesses, since we just met.  I will say that my guess is only slightly better than yours, simply because it's my blog and all, if it makes you feel better. I bought this shirt because it made me laugh.  My friends fondly joke that I'm a...well, I won't say, but I Will say that it's just a joke, and the shirt made me laugh.  My sister said something about me being "horrible" or some such nonsense when I held it up in the store.  I don't regret buying it, largely because if I hadn't I'd have to go to work topless (as if!), and nobody wants that, but it's rather large and it doesn't make me laugh as much anymore, so it'll probably be going back to the Goodwill come 2013.  For now, though, I hope you kids keep rockin', keep practicing, and keep getting better and better!

I love Coca-Cola more than...well, just about anything.  And I love it approximately 10,000 times more than this shirt. Size: XL | Fabric: 100% Cotton | Made by / in: Gildan / Honduras (of Canadian components) Had Since: 2010 | Price: $3 | Times Worn: 1 This shirt is pretty ugly - What is this color?  I'm gonna jump on the Gildan website and see if I can find this garment, because I don't have a word for this color aside from "gross."  Hmmm...okay, I've narrowed it down from their color selection to either "tan" or the charmingly named "prairie dust."  In better lighting you could make an argument for "pistachio" even - that's how ambiguous this shirt is.  I have a feeling this is ind33d "prairie dust," and suspect this may be the only shirt of this color that has ever been made, because it is awful.  Or rather, I Hope this is the only shirt of this color ever made.  In short, I don't like it. I've done a number of Google searches trying to figure out what this shirt IS - The texts "I.O.W.A." and "Pure Energy" above and below a Coca-Cola logo means Nothing to me (or Google) so far.  When I bought the shirt (why did I buy this shirt?) I suspected it was either from an Iowa-based bottling/distribution facility or some kind of sports team...a Little League team or something; those are usually sponsored by companies and businesses, right?  ("Yeah, Junior's been playin' left field for the Iowa Pure Energy and...what'd you say?  Oh, yeah, I guess that is a stupid name for a team!")  The only problem with That theory, though, is that there aren't any numbers on the back or sleeves.  It could be a team booster shirt...though why would you want your boosters filling the stands in This color?  No, I'm going back to the distribution facility theory, because companies wouldn't mind sacrificing employee morale by picking this terrible color as long as it was a bargain, and I've no doubt they got these garments for a song. So why Did I buy this shirt?  Like I said in the teaser, I am a huge Coca-Cola fan.  Merchandise from the beverage company was the first thing I started collecting in earnest as a child, and for a time I would buy nearly anything with the logo on it.  That all started when Hardee's sold plush Coke polar bears in their restaurants one winter and my sister and I could not stand to share one.  That's mine, Icicle, in the picture with me - He's my buddy.  I now have boxes and boxes (and, perhaps, a few more boxes) full of Coca-Cola merchandise - a sizeable, catalogued collection of items that were once all displayed proudly in my room.  The collection got a little overwhelming and hard to display, so I boxed most of it up a few years back, and someday I'll buy a house and have a room full of polar bears and such.  That all happened long before I purchased this shirt, though, so it's not really an answer. Maybe you're like me (hopefully not) - sometimes you just want to "buy something."  I get that itch occasionally, and it's dangerous to pair that up with a Goodwill trip.  I suppose that's a less dangerous combination than going to an upscale, over-priced store, but this shirt is evidence that it can still be dangerous at Goodwill.  So, yeah, I was at Goodwill and feeling like I wanted to buy a few shirts, and for some reason the pickings were rather slim, so I got this one because Coke is my favorite drink and, at the time, the phrase "Pure Energy" seemed pretty funny.  It still does, as long as you say it slowly and with an arrogant smile on your face, though most things do if you say 'em like that.  Give it a try.  I think I looked at the shirt for a long time with that scrunched-up face people make when they're trying to decide whether they really want to buy something questionable, and now that I think about it, if I make that face that should be all the evidence I need to determine that, "No - I don't need to buy this questionable item." So what have we learned?  Sometimes I buy a shirt at Goodwill because it's cheap and I wanna spend a little money.  I'll even buy an offensively-colored shirt like this "prairie dust" one if it has a Coca-Cola logo on it.  And guess what?  Yeah, the shirt Feels bad, too.  The fabric is stiff and borderline scratchy.  Thankfully the cut of the garment is okay, though I wouldn't mind the body being about three-quarters of an inch longer.  Oh, and look at that - the bottom seem is curling around the stitching...fantastic.  This Goodwill Wednesday shirt will be among the first to return to Goodwill in 2013, unless everybody else agrees that I should just burn it to protect future generations.  This is the second and last time I'll wear this, and I won't be sad to see it go. I'm not really sorry about the sketchy picture today - You can see the Coca-Cola Ave. sign, my buddy Icicle, the ugly shirt, and my Coca-Cola pajama pants.  My face isn't relevant. I hope you get to wear a shirt you like today, and hope I get to wear one I like tomorrow.

Pepper, our cat, shares my passion for miniature golf. Size: XXL | Fabric: 100% Cotton | Made by / in: Gildan / Honduras Had Since: 2006? | Price: $20? | Times Worn: ~20 Two days ago Steve and I played 18 holes of disc golf outside, no hats, sleeves rolled up, in 60F.  Today it's 18F, there's an inch of snow on the ground, and the best I can do is indoor mini golf with the cat.  That may sound silly, but we actually do play mini golf together...in our own way.  We've invented a game where I putt the ball down the hallway, and she sprints after it at top speed.  Nobody wins or losses, so I'm not certain it qualifies as a game, but everybody has a pretty decent time. This is relevant because today's shirt is from Pirate's Cove, the largest miniature golf course in Wisconsin Dells.  The Dells is the self-proclaimed "Waterpark capital of the world," and our family visits nearly every year, but we've never been to any of the waterparks.  In addition to the many waterparks and boat tours and fantastic shows (and Hundreds of T-shirt shops), Wisconsin Dells plays host to (by my estimation) no less than 250 holes of miniature golf, which is our family's incentive to visit.  We're not exceptional at the game and we're not ultra-competitive about it...we just love playing! Our favorite course is Pirate's Cove, home of 91 of The Dells' most beautiful and challenging holes.  The playing surfaces are all well-maintained, the holes are fun and use a variety of mechanics to make each one unique, and the landscaping is gorgeous.  They go to great lengths to keep their flowerbeds looking sublime, and that work is appreciated by anyone who can get their mind off the 6 strokes they just took on the last hole.  One summer I was a little picture-happy and totally obsessed with their flowers, so each game we played at Pirate's Cove took some extra time because I would stop and photograph each new species we came across.  ...That must have been annoying for the rest of the family.  Sorry 'bout that. One year I got it in my head that I needed a Pirate's Cove shirt to take home with me, and I knew exactly what I wanted - something similar to what the employees wear.  They wear solid, richly-colored shirts with a small logo on the left breast; subtle, classy.  Nothing like that was available for purchase at the time.  The best I could find was this shirt...black (which I was fine with), with a HUGE logo (not subtle or classy) in a dismal brown palette.  I bought it because I knew I wanted a shirt from this course, and was determined to have one, even if I wasn't thrilled with it, which I was not.  The shirt is enormous, cut large in every dimension, except for a surprisingly decent neckline.  It quickly fell into a pile of garments I rarely wore, and about 33 shirts ago (when I counted them the first time and this idea was born) I had sorted this one into a pile that was bound for Goodwill.  I imagine it will ultimately find its way there in 2013, as I don't wear it, I don't even really Like it, and it's in fantastic condition because of its low mileage. ...Plus, I happen to know that the little putt-putt fan with an eye for flowers eventually found a Pirate's Cove shirt that was Juuuust Right.  But that, friends, must be a story for another day.