A Successful Garage Sale

Sunday, 26 June 2005

Marissa and I were up and at 'em by 7 am. I pushed stuff out into the driveway. She put a couple sandwich board signs out on the street corners, and got us a couple of chai teas from Starbuck's to start our early morning. And, business was open. It was slow going at first, especially on this rare gloomy day (Of course, the one day I decide to have a garage sale is going to have sucky weather.) But, business picked up and was steady throughout the day. Some friends stopped by to check out how the sale was going. Caught up with Donna, Heather, Serg, PE teacher neighbor from down the street Laurie, and a few strange strangers who liked to tell stories and gab about their lives with me. Suprisingly, my stuff was actually selling! Seemed to be more successful than last year's sale of almost the same stuff! Marissa's grandfather had dropped off boxes of stuff to sell as well, and his box of tennis balls were a hit! Almost every hour, people were excited to buy tennis balls at 6 for $1, for their dogs, their kids to hit around in alleys, batting practice, or simply for a game of tennis. One guy wrote me a check for $10 for the remainder of about 60 tennis balls! My dad called in the late afternoon to say they arrived back from a successful Alaskan cruise and tours of Seattle, so they were just going to hang out until I was ready to go out to dinner. I made calls to my cousin and various friends to figure out a time and place to eat. Marissa's grandfather and brother came to drop off some furniture to sell in the late afternoon, but none of it sold. By 5 pm, we were cleaning up and putting things away. Serg was kind enough to load up his car to take a truckload of things to donate at Goodwill. Heather inherited some things that I couldn't take, like a printer and a mirror. It was a successful garage sale day, despite the inclement weather, and left me with a few hundred bucks in my pocket.

Steph and Michael came to take 7 boxes for me to slow boat for me at the post office, and Marissa and Heather did a home pedicure, while a ran around like crazy packing my bags and boxes for my last night in Seattle. Met the gang for 7:30 pm dinner reservations at McCormick's and Schmick's at Harborside. Cousin Mike and Susan picked up my dad and Bernie. Marissa and I waited for them, while listening to the Lyle Lovett concert on Lake Union from our car. Then, cousin Steph and Michael came and joined us for dinner, and Eric stopped by briefly to say hi and chat. We had a nice dinner of fresh fish and seafood, with a view of Lake Union, in the cloudy, rainy Seattle weather I know best, while watching the Seattle traffic go by on I-5. We all enjoyed hearing about the wonderful time my dad and Bernie had on the cruise ship in Alaska, and although it was hard for nine people to chat across a long table, it was great to have everyone together.