Christopher Long: THRIFT STORE ADVENTURES

Ah, very little in life gets my blood pumping and my heart racing like discovering a new thrift store. Today, my girlfriend Michelle and I visited the Goodwill location in Merritt Island, Florida. I must confess that Michelle has been around the thrift store "block" several more times than I. Hence, she'd previously visited this store and was giddy with delight to turn me on to a new spot. Within seconds, I understood why.

Heck yeah, these galoshes were flippin' awesome!

(I wish I was still a Size 5. I wish I was still a size 5. I wish I was still a size 5 .)

Through my personal past experiences, I've found the Goodwill stores in my area to be generally clean, organized and well-managed. However, this one took the cake. I'm guesstimating that the store is 12,000 square feet. Although they're a bit pricier than the typical Mom and Pop-type thrift store, the overall inventory was stellar. The staff was friendly and I'd wager a guess that I could have eaten off the sparkling, meticulously waxed floors -- even the bathrooms were clean -- which all adds up to a fabulous shopping experience.

Words to live by.

As Michelle was trying on a seemingly endless pile of girly stuff, I wandered into the store's "Young Adult" book section where I discovered a copy of The Case of the High Seas Secret by the distinguished sister author duo of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I was so immediately gripped by the riveting storyline, that I had to take a break and spend the eight minutes necessary to read it cover-to-cover.

I'm inspired by quality literature.

After approximately ninety minutes, we'd only covered half of the store and the effects of our early morning Starbucks experience were wearing off. Consequently, Michelle informed me that she would, in fact, gnaw her arm off within minutes if we didn't start making our way to Coconuts on the Beach, for lunch very soon!