Plato's Closet

It is 3:03am i realize, but i napped allll day because it was raining allll day which everyone knows makes for great naps! So I'm pretty awake right now and haven't blogged in awhile. I thought I'd share this writing assignment I had to do for my News Writing class. We had to go somewhere we've never been before and write a description of it--to practice our "description writing." I had always seen cute styles sported from this place called Plato's Closet. It's a clothing exchange store here. Carla and I decided to go there on Valentine's day...nothin' else to do!! So here is the end product: p.s. I got an A+ :)

Walking into Plato’s closet for the first time is like walking into a girl’s closet, but not just any girl—a girl with obsessive-compulsive disorder. There are racks of used clothes everywhere, perfectly organized by color so the store is essentially one giant rainbow. The red clothes fade into the orange clothes, the orange clothes fade into the yellow clothes. Bits of other colors peek out and break up the solidarity of each section. The smell of fresh cigarette smoke hits me as I walk up and down the rows of clothes. It’s coming from the woman browsing the jeans selection next to me. Many women search for the ideal bargain with their small children running freely throughout the store. I take a minute and ponder how the sections are set up. Simple “S”, “M” and “L” tags are sparsely scattered throughout the racks. I want to grab everything because it’s all so cheap, yet I don’t want to touch anything because I don’t know where it’s been—used clothing can be a bit of a surprising adventure. Finding jaw dropping outdated styles, scratchy fabrics, and unidentified stains are all among the discoveries waiting to be uncovered in a store like Plato’s closet. I begin in the jeans section. The hangers screech as I push the crowded bundle of jeans back along the rack to allow space to sort through them. There are so many outdated styles that I quickly flip through them earning me an intense workout. My right bicep is burning as I make it halfway down the long rack. A little girl runs past me and stops to stare in awe at my arm full of jeans. The heavy denim is weighing my arm down so much that I feel like it’s going to snap off. After trying on my clothes in the dressing room I discover that overwhelmingly cheap stores with extreme variety in their selection are too good to be true. Out of all of the clothes I tried on, I only decided to purchase a loose-fit “Grandpa sweater.” The navy blue, Lacoste brand sweater would normally sell for over a hundred dollars, but Plato’s closet sold it to me for a mere $12. The unique thing about this clothing exchange store is that upon entering, you get the sense that it is highly organized and clean. “Wow, this must be an upscale used clothing store! Not like those dirty ones I’ve been to in the past!” I think to myself. It even has comfy leather chairs by the dressing rooms. Quickly enough though, I realize used clothing is used clothing and whether it’s organized in a beautiful rainbow or a sprawled out in a sloppy mess, it all offers the same experience—high hopes for a bargain in the beginning, a little disgust and disappointment in the middle and a unique find for a steal price in the end.

My "unique find for a steal price"! :)