{"id":625,"date":"2013-01-04T09:23:01","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T17:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calirose.com\/blog\/?p=625"},"modified":"2013-01-04T09:23:01","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T17:23:01","slug":"a-second-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/a-second-look\/","title":{"rendered":"A SECOND LOOK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Everybody,<\/p>\n

We go to sleep early New Years Eve because we’re exhausted. It\u2019s a desert-cold night and my husband and I are grateful for heat and our comfy hotel room bed. We are somewhere in Phoenix. There is a riotous party ratcheting up, downstairs. The pumping, thumping music lulls us into REM sleep. Well until the stroke of midnight, that is, when exuberant screams of revelers blast through the walls and fireworks, yes fireworks, go ka-boom.<\/p>\n

We are in Arizona to hook up with the rest of my mystery family whom I discovered recently, thanks to Google and Facebook. We met many of them last summer in Indianapolis. (See my series of blogs, \u201cMarvelous Midwest<\/a>). But a few were still missing-links. Hence a \u201cfamily reunion\u201d was arranged in Phoenix. Cousins fly in from parts east, west, north and we gather for one joyously chaotic family graze-a-thon after another in the house of the matriarch herself, the stalwart and handsome woman who was married to my great uncle Sidney.<\/p>\n

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Part of “the family” celebrating “family-hood” in Phoenix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cousins and spouses and kids perform, compose and record music, teach, write, draw, sew, cook, invent, travel, save lives in a neo-natal ICU, tile floors and do dry wall, run a business (Chopsaver<\/a>), build and repair musical instruments. I know I\u2019m leaving stuff out. Perhaps we are a bunch of high achievers, you think?<\/p>\n

Well I like to work AND play. Play for me is shopping for clothes. Actually, shopping is my\u00a0cheap therapy<\/em>. \u201cTherapy\u201d because it gets me out of my head and out of the house. \u201cCheap\u201d because I\u2019m a Goodwill Thrift Store kind of gal. So when my cousin Noelle tells me there is a consignment store a block away and \u201clet\u2019s walk over,\u201d well I can barely breathe.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>So on the second to the last day of 2012, we are standing in front of\u00a0\u201cA Second Look.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Someone opens the door and I swear it\u2019s like walking across a threshold into a phantasmic, colossal, colorful circus of joy. It\u2019s big, like Ross Dress for Less, but the clothes (and jewelry and knick-knacks, shoes, bags, rugs, gifts, men\u2019s wear) are unique and quality stuff. Apparently there are a lot of ladies in the desert who are happy to unload their spiffy frocks and do-dads.<\/p>\n

And now I\u2019m gasping for air. The stuff is SO fine that it turns over quickly. If a garment stays on the rack longer than a month the price goes down. Two months, the price goes WAY down. That is how I snag a pair of gray jeans for a whopping 75% off. They cost me $4.49. We stay all afternoon. Until the lady tells us on the loudspeaker to check out because the store is closing. The next day we go back for more.<\/p>\n

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My cousin Laura in “bliss land” checking out at A Second Look<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think shopping, for some people is, well, more than shopping. It\u2019s a communal experience. It\u2019s a feeling of belonging. And escaping. \u00a0Even though we are in our own little worlds, searching for the right blouse or taking delight in running our hands over a row of coats, every customer in the store is doing the same thing. Looking, touching, trying on. Being utterly human.<\/p>\n

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In the dressing room we emerge from our curtained cubicles long enough to \u201cooh\u201d and \u201caah\u201d each others\u2019 outfits. I learn the dance quickly. You can take up to 8 garments in at a time and afterwards when you return the booty to the attendant, you report how many are \u201cyes\u201d and how many are \u201cno.\u201d By now, she is carefully arranging my growing collection of \u201cyes\u2019s\u201d on a nearby rack.<\/p>\n

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With my cousins Halaine and Laura as we check out. This is what joy looks like…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exhausted but thoroughly exhilarated we finally drag ourselves and our stuff to the cash register lady, a lovely woman who knows this store, knows her clientele, knows the neighborhood and knows enough to ask me if I\u2019d like to sign up for their rewards program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAwwwwww, I don\u2019t live around here. Why don\u2019t you open a store Los Angeles\u2026? (I\u2019m making pathetic groans at this point) Please! Please! Please!\u201d She skillfully redirects my pleas for franchising. \u201cSo you\u2019re visiting,\u201d she responds. \u201cDo you know anyone in Phoenix who\u2019s on our program?\u201d I mention my cousin (who is ripping out floor tiles in her house as I speak) and the woman\u2019s face lights up like sunshine. \u201cOh yes we know her. We\u2019ll add your reward points to her account.\u201d That\u2019s good for $25 off her next purchase.<\/p>\n

Later that evening when I tell my cousin all about it, her smile is as big as the saleswoman\u2019s and she tells me a little more about her connection with the store:<\/p>\n

It was once upon a time… When she found her soul mate, a man who matched her intellect and curiosity and utter zest for grabbing the guts of life. He\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0loved her. And she loved him. The marriage gave my cousin, this monumentally talented and driven woman, a sense of balance and calm. But it ended tragically when he passed away suddenly. They had less than a decade together. My cousin tells me that she went to “A Second Look” everyday after that. It was her therapy. Being in the store with the clothes, with the people, helped bring her back to life. One day she told the saleswoman about her husband. \u201cYou\u2019re not the only one,\u201d the woman confided. The store is a haven. It reminds us that we can go on, even when we don\u2019t think we can. Or don\u2019t want to.<\/p>\n

So what else can we do for each other, and ourselves, but bear witness to sorrow and suffering. Then get busy\u00a0doing<\/em>.\u00a0Doing<\/em>\u00a0something. Get out of the house, out of our head and into the land of the living. It\u2019s a new year\u2026<\/p>\n

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It’s back to work for my cousin Halaine, wearing one of her “A Second Look” skirts… She snagged a few.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Hi Everybody, We go to sleep early New Years Eve because we’re exhausted. It\u2019s a desert-cold night and my husband and I are grateful for heat and our comfy hotel room bed. We are somewhere in Phoenix. There is a riotous party ratcheting up, downstairs. The pumping, thumping music lulls us into REM sleep. Well until the stroke of midnight, that is, when exuberant screams of revelers blast through the walls and fireworks, yes fireworks, go ka-boom. We are in … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[65,66,67,68],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentry","tag-family-reunion","tag-second-hand-stores","tag-shopping","tag-shopping-therapy"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"blog entry"}],"post_tag":[{"value":65,"label":"family reunion"},{"value":66,"label":"second hand stores"},{"value":67,"label":"shopping"},{"value":68,"label":"shopping therapy"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Cali Rose","author_link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/author\/crbauthor\/"},"comment_info":4,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"blog entry","slug":"blogentry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":139,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":139,"category_description":"","cat_name":"blog entry","category_nicename":"blogentry","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":65,"name":"family reunion","slug":"family-reunion","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":65,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":66,"name":"second hand stores","slug":"second-hand-stores","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":66,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":67,"name":"shopping","slug":"shopping","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":67,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":68,"name":"shopping therapy","slug":"shopping-therapy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":68,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}