After receiving a flyer from a couple in our neighborhood about a community yard sale, we decided to get rid of a lot of the stuff that has been cluttering our house for far too long while simultaneously raising some MUCH NEEDED money for our Disneyland trip. (Which, by the way, is less than 2 months from now!) In true Sams fashion, we waited until the last couple of days to start preparing for our yard sale. We had an idea of what we wanted to put out, so it was just a matter of digging it out of the shed & garage, cleaning it up, and pricing it. Also in true Sams fashion, the stress of doing things last minute caused both the hubs & I to be snippy w/ each other all evening on Friday. I fully expected one of us to smother the other in their sleep. However, we're both still alive & well today, so there were no weekend homicides to report. :)
We got up extra early on Saturday morning to set up our tables & load them down w/ our junk. Not only our junk, but my mother-in-law's junk, my brother-in-law's junk, and my niece's junk, too. We had it all out & ready a lot quicker than I thought, which put us all in a pretty good mood. We got settled under our quick shade canopy & started getting customers a full hour before we were planning to "open".
Saturday was non-stop busy all day long. By 4pm, we were all hot & tired, but feeling very good about the progress we had made that day. Sales were very good. We all went out to dinner together, then the hubs & I took all the kids back home w/ us for the night. Sunday was a lot slower in terms of customers, but we still managed to sell quite a bit of stuff. Our free pile kept growing & our prices kept dropping, but we earned a respectable income. It was as we were cleaning up the sale that I got the biggest surprise (and reward) of the whole weekend. My mother-in-law, queen hoarder of the family, willingly & happily added a lot of the leftovers to the free pile. Not only that, but she also gave me a bunch of the good leftovers so that I can deliver them to my friend this week for her yard sale. (She's raising money for the ADA in support of her son, who has diabetes.) This may not seem like a big deal, but it is HUGE for my mother-in-law. She's not selfish, she is just a product of her childhood. She was one of 9 children & they had to fight for the little bit of stuff they had. This has made her a hoarder, as evidenced by her jam-packed 2 car garage, attic, & house. She has slowly started loosening her grip on the stuff she doesn't truly need, but she still has a hard time letting most of it go. So to watch her freely adding things to the donate & giveaway piles was awesome.
The money we raised has been added to our Disneyland fund, putting us just a little bit closer to our goal for the trip. With the loss of $100 thanks to our "friend" the Elvis impersonator, school shopping, summer childcare, and our usual bills, it has been a real struggle to set aside much money for our trip. Honestly, if we hadn't already booked it, we probably would have backed out by now. But we've kept forging ahead b/c neither of us can bear the thought of disappointing Trinity in such a way. We're all very much looking forward to this vacation, so it's worth the sacrifices we've had to make.
Being out there selling stuff to folks reminded me how much I enjoy working around the general public. Granted, there are a lot of rude & thoughtless people out there, but there are even more kind & friendly folks out there, too. I enjoyed chatting with them, making small talk, and getting to meet a few more people from our neighborhood. In spite of my sometimes crippling lack of self-esteem, I am a people-person. I lost a great many years between the ages of 16-25 when I kept my world very closed off. I had a specific set of people I was comfortable with & the rest of the time my eyes were down & my mouth was shut. (Hard to believe, I know.) After having a child & realizing that my actions don't just affect me anymore, I started branching outside my comfort zone. Justin has helped bring me out of my shell a lot, too. For the most part, the public doesn't frighten & intimidate me anymore. There are still moments, particularly if I'm going into a situation w/ people I deem are higher up on the totem pole than me. (AKA rich folks.) I've never had a problem feeling calm around my friends, but the rest of the world used to scare the shit out of me. Nowadays I don't think twice about putting myself into situations where I have to interact with complete strangers. I might panic a little at first, but once I'm there, I'm glad I didn't let the voice in my head stop me from stepping out.
When I crawled into bed last night, I was overwhelmed by exhaustion, but also deeply content after a busy weekend with some of the people I love the most in the world. It's amazing to me that I worked harder than I have in a very long time, but I still feel restored & renewed. The next few days are going to be a blur as I get my house back in order, take my kiddo school shopping, and finish the gift I'm making for the Bloggess. I'll be leaving early Wednesday morning for a whirlwind road trip w/ some awesome bitches, Saturday will be spent w/ my Dad & his girlfriend aka my new bonus Mom, and the weekend will be capped off w/ the Weird Al concert w/ my hubs & kiddo on Sunday. The following weekend is our trip to the coast w/ my mother-in-law; the last big event before school starts. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would have such a crazy, busy, blessed existence.
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