Saturday, September 22, 2007

To have a garage sale...

The fateful garage sale finally could be postponed no longer. I woke up at 8:03. That was the first bad sign. I had to have a shower. Second bad sign. I couldn't get the signs to stay in the ground and frankly wasn't very motivated. I'm going to stop counting how many bad signs there were now just because it's a number I don't want to know. At about 9:30 I was still indecisively dragging my one borrowed table around in circles and my lovely husband popped his head out and asked how the garage sale was going. I gave him the honest low down that most of my stuff wasn't priced, I didn't have any change to give people, I didn't have any signs out and I hadn't had a single customer. He just gave me that wry smile that I like to think says "half the reason I love you is because you're such a complete flake." He took over the sign situation and ran to the gas station for change (and some mountain dew "nectar of the gods" as he calls it.) I continued scooting the scanty garage sale items around trying to make it look like I had more stuff.
People started trickling in. The first five people bought nothing. I asked Jody if didn't he have anything in the garage worth selling? He scrounged around and put some "man stuff" out which sold within a half an hour. I finally sold $2 worth of baby clothes. I won't drag out any more play by plays but suffice it to say that I will NEVER try to have a garage sale again. I'm not organized enough, it was the most torturous $50 I have ever EARNED and I sell much more and faster on Craigslist even if I do wind up spending just as much in the process. <--Nasty runon sentence.
After the horrid affair was over I walked around the "garage sale" snapping pictures to post on Craigslist. I have much higher hopes. Jody's only hope is to have his garage returned to him someday. The eternal promise of a garage sale ended with such a pathetic splat and he hasn't said a single condemning word to me. Can you say "SAINT?"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You sound entirely TOO much like your mother. Her involvement with garage sales is limited "taking things to someone else's" sale. Should have worked -- BUT nothing was priced, ironed, repaired, polished or folded. I think she made about $18.75 at one and nothing on the other. She just hauls everything to the Salvation Army now and they either 1.) Iron it;
2.) Fold it; 3.) Polish it; 4.) THROW IT AWAY. The choice is entirely their's.