Notes From the Front ... 2010

Good evening Mister and Missus America, and all the ships at sea ...

... The Find has been lean lately, but the Earn has been insane.  I just billed more than 60 hours for a two-week period - that might not sound like much to people with real jobs, but when you work in all the driving between homes, paperwork, outside-the-class work, and cleanup it's more like 100, and it's the third pay period that's been like that.  I'm not used to it, especially not this late in the year.  I might just make it to last year's gross yet ... but I'm not sure I'll be perky enough to enjoy it.

... I spent Friday sorting through my jewelry, separating what I love from what'll get my kisser on Hoarders.  I spent Saturday morning driving 150 miles, in expectation of seeing my gold guy to trade or even scrap out the ounce or two I'd been hanging onto (in a scary way).  I spent Saturday afternoon passing sign after sign with "yard sale" all over them, things I'd missed while on what turned out to be a fool's errand - in my guy's state, the police are cracking down so hard on suspected thieves that they've made it nearly impossible for even a licensed dealer to buy gold from an average Jane like me.  (And since the commodity's spot price fell fifty or sixty dollars an ounce in the two days previously, he just probably decided it wouldn't be worth the paperwork.  I can't blame him.)

... My eBay yard sale is sort of picking up speed.  I'd vowed to double the number of listings every week until Thanksgiving but reckoned without the sheer volume of work I'm getting, the sheer mass of crap in my office making it difficult to photograph and pack things, and the sheer frustration of writing up every little item (including maker's marks).  I didn't know I had this much silver and costume jewelry, nor did I realize one of my end dates was Halloween.  I'm not taking this week off, but I'm only listing a few things - maybe my first gold, because falling prices notwithstanding, in a head-to-head match up my yellow stuff will beat Jack o' Lantern's glowing eyes hand's down.

... I've gone another year without pulling out my bicycle.  It's a cruiser, which the Big Lug says is silly on the hills our neighborhood, but I really want to ride something I can brake by backpedalling instead of squeezing until my hands scream.  I even put a basket on it so I could carry groceries back from nearby stores.  Yet in the two ... okay almost three years I've had it, I haven't even scuffed the new-tread spaghetti off the tires.  Another thing I need to either use or sell or donate, I guess.

... Speaking of which, I hired my daughter to do some cleaning on Sunday - she needed the money, I needed the help, and I am shedding all kinds of excess this week.  So when I started to the curb with a dresser I've had by the front door for months, and she asked why I wasn't putting it on Craigslist in a flash-sale, I said she could keep the money if she could sell it.  Three hours later (while I was at a tutorial) she was $50 up, and I have both a bigger-feeling living room and a new perspective of Craigslist.

... And the Great Purge continues.

In Transit

Hello from my phone!  I have a few minutes between appointments (and this is short because my thumbs are fat and my keyboard is small).  I forgot to blog this morning - had to walk off the on-the-run food that's been my staple, had to mail the two eBay sales that ended Sunday, had to finish some emails and internet "paperwork" for the main office.  Lots of hours this week, which is good.  Home feels like hotel, which is not good.  But it will end soon - my Dad just called to cancel his trip out here (threw his back out) so the weekend will be the first quiet one in a long time.  Hopefully the first of many.

But for today (and tomorrow and the next and the next and the ...) I will be content with the action, the passion, and the not-insubstantial paycheck I'm about to bill.  Dreams of a new bathroom or ceiling fans or bedroom decor keep me moving forward - just like the thought of the empty space on my calendar keeps me from falling down.

Life really is as good as we decide it is!

Running

Tick-tock, tick-tock.  I've been running for days, and it ain't gonna end any time soon.  I grabbed the Big Lug and beat feet outta here at 7a for a 72nd Annual rummage sale (that's since the '30's!).  Found some great pieces (including a couple of organization pins I've never seen before), went on to breakfast and thrift shops and used book stores (spent all of $20 for all ... 2.5 dwt maybe) and dinner and home, cleared up some work waiting for me and weighed the ring and earrings I found ... but not tested ... and now I'm blogging and will edit a paper for a friend before diving head-first into bed ...

To wake up and go help out (and incidentally shop early at) another rummage sale then try to write up and photograph some more things to go up on eBay then go to tutorial and class only to make dinner and crash in bed before waking up ...

To run and run and run to two classes, two tutorials, three locations, and in the blank places between to get things up and running on eBay only ...

To let the world go dark and light again and race back and forth from noon to 830 or 9 or 930 all week.

Running.  It's only for the brave.

Or the crazy.

Poke Nose

Holy crap on a cracker, I was ranty last week!  It was exhausting, too, especially since I had a 12.5 hr Sunday and a 9 hr Monday, with students and classes all over the place.  Thank heaven the PSATs are tomorrow, and the ACTs are a week from Saturday - I don't think I could survive another month like the last, and another weekend like the last two.

There wasn't even any good stuff out there last weekend.  Plenty of yard sales (it's been warm), no big caches of stuff.  I think the lack of finds is Mama Angel, poking her big wings into my life again.  In fact, I'm pretty sure because A) I'd made a vow to get my shelves and storage areas clear this fall, mostly with a three-month internet bash on eBay, CraigsList, and Etsy - selling off stuff that I can't wear anymore, don't use anymore, or I'm just plain embarrassed I bought in the first place.  (She's big on me keeping my promises, and usually makes sure I will by pulling gold out of my way.)  And B) there's this:

I spent a dollar.  For work on my bat-wings.  Which is the other thing she's been after me about.  And (okay) I'm fine with that.  Especially since the Big Lug already commented on my "losing weight."

Next week, one of my favorite rummage sales.  I'll depend on Ms. Poke Nose to remind me to take a camera.  And since I'm not putting plenty of stuff online (and wearing myself out in the bargain) I'll also trust her to take the hold off the gold.

The Crow

So I was stopped at a light, filing my front tooth, when I got a good look at my eyebrows in the rear view mirror.  I have Andy Rooney eyebrows - long, bushy, salt-and-pepper brows that seem to have a life (and a zip code) of their own.  And I realized it's not fair that I got his signature feature without his signature sense of the absurd.

At least today I did.  The economy always does this to me.

Really, I need to stop watching CNBC.  Or at least stop drinking soda from a bottle ... so I won't chip my tooth and need to file the burr at a stoplight and see my brows.