blast from the past

the teen and i made a quick trip out to pasadena yesterday after school to run a couple of errands. i'm working on an invitation order for my friend r, so a trip to paper source was on the list. and the teen has been after me to take her to a cool thrift shop/vintage clothing store for ages, so i decided we'd stop in to one i'd seen on green street the last time i was in the area.

because we both have the sense of humor of a 10-year-old boy, we totally giggled and snorted at this sign:

dorks, i know. and i still smirk when i look at that picture. heh.

the stop at paper source was quick and non-eventful. like, i can't even come up with one full sentence that would be remotely interesting about it. so i'll skip ahead to the vintage clothing store - aardvark's.

now, you guys know i'm a prissy ass bitch. thrift shops, 99¢ stores, places to buy stuff that isn't brand new or top quality are not my forte. it's really just not my thing! and so i caught myself making faces and wrinkling my nose as we stepped inside the store. dudes, it smelled funny in there! but i was pleasantly surprised to note that all of the merchandise was well-organized and carefully arranged on racks, separated by type.

despite my thoughts on a lot of the other crap in there, i was slightly captivated by the sight of these:

vintage clothing shops - the final resting place for old cheerleading uniforms.

i was totally amused at the creative displays.

the teen and i were slightly horrified at the sight of this rack, chock full of...ling-er-ee. ew.

as much as i wrinkled my nose, i had to agree that this was the perfect place to come up with a damn good halloween costume.

i damn near pissed myself when i found these as i riffled through a rack of old sweaters. these are hawt, yes?

we also found lots of potential ensembles suitable for upcoming 4th of july celebrations.

we need to bring these back. come on, the world could use some laughs these days.

possible dress choices for the teen's first prom:

i literally howled with laughter upon finding this - because i had one just. like. it. only mine was royal blue, and suede. and look - they STILL want $60 for this thing! holy crap.

okay, this is nutty. a bangles tee for $60? and another featuring an obscure 1983-ish movie that reunited john travolta and olivia newton-john on screen for the first time since "grease" going for $45? hell, i think i actually HAD both of these at one time. wish i'd have known.

there was a plethora of camo and military-style stuff, including a jacket once owned by a correctional officer for l.a. county. and as i perused that rack, i wondered who mr. griffin of the u.s. army was and how his jacket ended up here.

no outfit is complete without a matching hat. you could easily find one to top off any set of dapper duds here.

and this shit - i could swear i'd seen this hot ass mess on carol brady during the episode where marcia broke her nose. after seeing these clothes, she probably wished she'd broken her eyes instead.

in the end, the teen found nothing she was really interested in scooping up. but we'd spent close to an hour snorting and cackling, and me telling a couple of stories about actually having some of the stuff we'd seen in there. we'd had a great time together, and that's worth way more than a piece of clothing or a pair of shoes. right?

and speaking of vintage:

oh, seven. didn't you know that asians aren't supposed to be blonde??