Likewise!

A couple of weeks ago, the half-price tag colors changed at my favorite thrift store, which meant I had to make the rounds to all three of the branches. They use three different colors of price tags at this store: white, green, and yellow. Each month, one of the colors is the half-price color, and items with that tag are half off. I've never been able to figure out what day the change happens, though. It seems to be different every month. But, when it happens, it sets off a second-hand retail pilgrimage.

One of the stores is downtown and the other is right near the house. I usually hit them in the same afternoon. The other is across town, not too far from our favorite Mexican place. Of course, this means a stop for yummy food after the bargain hunt is over.

We're regulars there, so we get pretty conversational with the staff. This particular visit our server was Maria, who is one of the best servers there. She hadn't waited on us in a while, so we spent a few minutes catching up. She told us it was good to see us again, and Keith said "Likewise," which is one of his standard replies to things like that.

She stopped for a minute, but quickly went to wait on another table. On her way back past us, she asked Keith to say the word again. When he did, she got a big smile on her face and said "I've never heard that before. I like that. Likewise." A few minutes later I went to the bathroom. When I got back, Keith told me that she had asked how to say it again and had asked what it means. Keith had told her it kind of means "I agree." or "It's good to see you too." She told him that she liked it because it sounded so polite. She was really happy to have learned a new word.

Keith and I talked a little bit about the incident on the way home. I think it had been a while since we'd been a part of a demonstration of cultural differences like that. It was kind of cool to be a part of someone's learning process with just a simple word. Ages ago (I can't remember where) I read that you should try to learn something new every day. For that one day, I guess we helped Maria meet that go