An Activity You Must Do With Your Friends - Goodwill Date

It all started when I received a random text from a girlfriend (hey Carolyn!) the other week: “Goodwill date on 11/13 – a restaurant for dinner is still to be determined!” I was utterly confused but didn’t ask any questions. I proceeded to text my husband and inform him that a few girlfriends and I were apparently going out to dinner and shopping at Goodwill for a random night out…his response “for once I won’t have to be concerned about your spending!” A week or so passed and I received another text, this time a huge group text “22 of us are confirmed for our Goodwill date! You have $10 to spend on your partner, dinner will be at ____, see you in your outfits then!” And then I got it. This wasn’t a dinner and shopping trip with girlfriends, this was a grab your spouse, head to Goodwill, shop for one another and buy the most ridiculous things you can find and then show up in public for a dinner out in your outfits with 20 others! Perfection.

And so that’s what we did – Shawn and I made our way to the nearest Goodwill store, he ventured off to the women’s section and I made my way to the men’s (although sticking to the women’s section for him sounded a little more exciting) and stuck to our limit of $10 each. Thankfully we shopped on a 30% off day stretching our dollars even further. He found the most flattering shoulder to ankle dress for myself, a flower and star adorned belt, women’s shooting visor, a nice patch of fur to stick in my pocket, the prettiest purse which had a baby girl angel staring up at me and one shinguard to top it all off. You never know when you are going to need that extra protection ya know?

I decided on a delightful combination of furry pajama pants with a mock turtleneck, Hugh Hefner velour robe and a fancy remote control tie. Lets just say it was hard to keep my hands off that man that evening…….

We then met up with the group at a nice dining establishment [Lucchese’s if you are local] dressed in our get-up and had a few rules for inside the restaurant – we couldn’t act as if we were dressed weird nor could we use the restroom that was closest to us. Oh no, we had to use the restrooms that were on the other end of the building meaning we would have to walk past the bar and through the restaurant to make sure all eyes could delight in our beautiful outfits. Fortunately the visor provided some nice shade over my face making it a little easier to hide.

It was such a fun and ridiculous night that I highly encourage you to do this with your friends. I’m trying to think if I have ever laughed more from just looking around a dining table and no, I never had. Between the onesies, 80’s space suit, Zach Morris sweater, Christmas cardigans, pleated pants and an oil tycoon blazer – we were looking good – real good.

Just for a quick recap of how it works, here you go:

Get to planning – it’s the perfect winter activity because lets be real, what else is there to do when it’s negative 13 and dark come 4:30 pm? Happy Goodwill dating.