Friday, August 28, 2009

The saga of Banana's backpack:

Lovely Banana (aka The Queen) started middle school this week and offered to use the messenger bag I made (well, embellished?) for her last year because she's all money conscious and stuff. She packed it full of her junk and got to school and found out that 6th graders don't get lockers - the middle school was originally just for 7th and 8th grade and they haven't been able to put more lockers in. She has three 1 to 2 inch binders plus other stuff plus gym shoes plus her agenda. It's crammed and her shoulders are killing her every day.

No money for a new backpack - except financial aid money, but it's not yet released to me, just in my account. So I head over to the college bookstore and pick her up a really nice backpack - padded shoulder straps, adjustable compartments, etc. (ok, it was the only one left without wheels) for $50 - way more than I would really like to spend, but I don't want her to keep hurting her shoulders and spending money on financial aid is like spending money on a credit card. it's not quite real/in your hand yet, so it's easy to spend.

Oh, and the backpack is black with mustard yellow and grey accents.

She hated it and it was too long for her. But she let the office lady take off and throw away the tags before she read my note inside saying DON'T TAKE OFF THE TAGS UNLESS YOU'RE GOING TO KEEP IT - oh and there was a note on the outside telling her to read the note inside as soon as she got it.

TEARS.

On Wednesday, I took it back anyway. And got really lucky that they made an exception (mostly because it was the only one left and he still had people coming in to register who could also be suckered in to buying a $50 backpack on financial aid).

HAPPY - except her shoulders still hurt.

Went to Goodwill today. Our Goodwill SUCKS. Seriously sucks. Except when it doesn't, like today.

A PINK and black SWISS ARMY Airflow backpack (looked it up, one with the same features but this year's model, retails for $80), mostly clean (all clean now thanks to Shout, baking powder, bleach, and laundry detergent), a little smaller, did I mention it was PINK!!

And, oh yeah, for $4.99.

95% off retail.

If she doesn't like it...

Well, then I'll sell it on ebay I guess, there's one exactly like it but red listed right now for $60. Or use it myself. It's so awesome, laptop ready and everything. Not that I haul books or laptops anywhere, but if I needed to, I definitely could, in style.

They also had a clean and perfect love seat for $25 that I wanted so badly for our living room, but it was sold. It must have been an employee because it was marked sold today and I was there 5 minutes after they opened.

Resume lameness of Goodwill.

2 comments:

Carina said...

Did she like it? Did she like it?

evitafjord said...

Like might be too strong a word for her initial reaction. It's still a ginormous backpack, but it has to be, so not much can be done there. It grew on her and it appeals to her love of being organized and having a spot for everything.