My goal-oriented brain nearly caused me to miss visiting a friend who I hadn’t seen in 20 years. We’d worked at different schools in Monterrey, Mexico. Although we now lived less than two hours away, finding a day we both had free was a challenge.
At that time, the countdown to vacationing in Ghana loomed. I dedicated every free moment to packing, shopping for things to pack, and setting aside many hours to rush through editing a podcast project before my big trip.
I paused most of that craziness to visit her on the Fourth of July, which landed on a Friday; so, I had the day off. I reasoned, where my friend lived, also had stores.
I incorporated my search for second-hand pants with visiting her. Fortunately, she was game. She even elevated the pursuit by calling it “thrifting.”
However, first on the itinerary was lunch. She recommended an Indian restaurant where she’d never had the buffet. By the time we left the restaurant, I was ready to walk off all that delicious food.
We ended up visiting four places in search of pants that fit, resulted in no camel toe, and had no fake pockets nor fake drawstrings. A much harder pursuit than I originally thought.
I even found a fanny pack that met most of my criteria: black, no designer’s name on it, and big enough to accommodate my bigger, better new cellphone. Still not leather, but for an inexpensive fanny pack, I was very happy with the find.
In the end, I was only one pair of secondhand pants shy of my original goal. Close enough. Once in Ghana, I could get pants made. Or, even better, not care about how many times I wore a certain pair of pants because I would be on vacation.
Either way, as my visit came to a close, my friend stated that thrifting was a good way to spend the day together after lunch, but before all the Fourth of July madness had begun in earnest. She extended an invitation to a barbecue she and her partner were attending later that evening, but I declined.
Since I hadn’t planned on spending the night, better to leave before sundown. I needed energy to juggle other creative projects once home. When it comes to projects, my logic is similar to that old Lays potato chip slogan: bet I can’t do just one.
Many times, I focus so much on my own pursuit of happiness, I don’t often plan to loop other people in. I’m happy that the stars aligned, along with our schedules, and we could catch up with one another. That was far better than any go-through-the motions celebration.