Traffic Control, Thrifting, and Fun Fact #24

Last year I volunteered to help with a medication collection sponsored by Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful.  It's held at Machesney Park Mall and runs from nine in the morning until two.  It was a nice way to get involved in the community in a very low profile sort of way.  (I am sooo a low profile sort-of girl!)  It was alot of fun last year because I volunteered with two co-workers that I really didn't know all that well.  So a couple months ago when they were looking for volunteers for this year's event, I signed up.  Little did I realize that I was going to be the ONLY one from my place of employment who would be volunteering. 

When I got to my morning shift today, imagine my surprise when they said, "You are going to direct traffic."  No harm there. I can wear a safety vest and hold an orange flag and direct traffic, right?  Well...I failed to realize that a majority of the donators would be elderly.  And let me just say right now -- WOW - THEY SURE CAN DRIVE CRAZILY!  What in the world!  Honestly - there were two times today when I felt my life was truly compromised.  It wasn't like we had an obstacle course set-up.  There was a man standing at turn #1.  He informed the motorists, "See the gal down there.  (Pointing to me!) Drive down to her and make a left." 

With my trusty flag, I even pointed to the left - lest they think their left was their right...  How can you not follow an orange (A BRIGHT ORANGE) flag?  Okay - so holding this flag and hearing it whip in the wind reminded me of my days in the flag corps!!!  Yes, I was one of those girls with the marching band that twirled a flag and wore the sparkly polyester outfit including a sequin headband.  I honestly loved being in flags!  My friends were in the flags.  We practiced all the time.  We made flag corps cool!  We had a terrific coach/instructor, LeAnn.  When I was in flags, I learned alot about interpersonal relationships.  It was a great experience for me.  I remember in the 11th grade, we spent hours learning a routine to "I Need A Hero" (a song from Footloose).  We practiced and practiced.  The rest of the band really didn't take us seriously up until this performance.  I mean, can you trust someone who knowingly French braids their hair and sprays it with aerosal glitter/hairspray?  Ummm...NO!  But I rememeber - after we performed that routine and we WON, the band members started taking us seriously - sparkles and all.  It was a good feeling.  We put in sooo much time and energy into that one performance.  Evcn now...all these years later, when I hear that song when I channel surf, I stop surfing and I listen.  I get a little choked-up when I remember the friendships, the heartache, the everything about being 16 and learning about life...about following through when you commit to something.  I'm thankful for my experience in flags!  And I am thankful for my fellow flag girls!  We seriously rocked!!!  And we were ultra-cool because we were with the band...

Back to today...(sigh)...

My favorite motorists were the ones that could not stay in-between the orange cones...I don't know if there was a depth-perception issue.  But I got to thinking...if they can't stay between two orange cones, why in the world are they driving?  There aren't cones on IL Route 251.  Maybe I should've recorded their license plate numbers and made a call to Jesse White.

I managed to survive the two scary episodes and turned in my safety vest at 11:25 a.m.  At which point, I promptly headed to Rhonda's to change out of my jeans and into a springy skirt and flip-flops for our thrifting extravaganza with Roxanne! 

What a fun afternoon in Janesville.  I found a couple of things...Roxanne found a couple of things...but Rhonda, she was the winner!!!  Let's see...what did I get?  A brown patterned cottony sundress.  A marroon-ish top which has an attached underneath layer of sheer marroon with white polkadots.  A light brown (not tan) sweater with a hood.  A green summery sweater-top.  I think that's it. 

After hitting that thrift, we grabbed some lunch...which to be honest, was much needed to even out my blood sugar levels.  You know you're hungry when you are standing in the dressing room at the thrift saying, "I hope they feed me soon because this dress is not funny yet I cannot quit laughing!" 

After lunch, we headed back to Illinois where we returned Roxanne to her humble abode and we (Rhonda and I) headed to the 49 cent thrift sale to search for skirts for the youth group girlies who are going to camp.  No luck finding skirts.  It seems all the tan tags were picked-over...so we went to Target where I obtained cat food for the evil one and quick-dry nail polish for myself.  Rhonda managed to keep me in stitches through the whole store.  We are soo not right when we are together...especially when we go long periods of time (ummm...since Wednesday) apart. 

After the red bullseye, we parted ways and I headed back to the cottage.  What a great Saturday!  I didn't clean a thing at the cottage...but I had a chance to volunteer and spend the afternoon with two dear friends.  The kitchen floor can wait one more day...and truth be told, it will be fine waiting two more days.  :)

Hope your Saturday was delightful!