zen and the art of sidewalk sale

we woke excited to get rid of things, j misted pearly pretty by morning light me giggling cold toes sidewalk sale day weeeeee

got showered and dressed and headed out for coffee while trying to figure out last minute details like signs and cord to hang clothes and table to spread stuff on and ella, j and i dragged our random crap down and out onto the sidewalk.

we spent the first little bit sipping coffee and setting up, doing a little bit of bartering, i having discovered that the only good poncho is a dead poncho traded that for some lovely material i coveted and j gave me a cotton kimono which i sported right away..

we hung and organized and folks started strolling through, we had advertised on craigslist some of the bigger stuff including my beloved armoire which i would like to take a moment now to publicly profess my undying love to

ahem. the first peice of real furniture that actually belonged to me, i measured and bought wood planks and lugged them home on the bus to build shelves inside, your ancient sweet smelling dark old wood intricate molding sweet painted detail of figs or something your lovely details cancelled out the horror of moving your enormous carcass up three flights of stairs and down.not to mention the fat distortion mirror that graces your door. squatty and stout as i appear i loved you nonetheless. there are those that curse the day you were born. not i. i love you as i always have. it was my idea to let you go. i was inspired. we discussed things we could let go of and i thought pretty much anything, but never you. but then i thought wow am i that attached to piece of furniture? that i have to hold onto it even if it means that its in storage or with j? when you arent even really his thing and i have no room for you in my new place and i thought maybe for the right price i could give you up. perhaps someone else would be as excited about you as i had been. and maybe that would be ok even that would be the best for all of us, not to mention the notion that i would never have to move you again...

so anyway, we marked things low low low and watched excitedly as others oohed and ahhed stuff wed once loved, we enjoyed the trying on of clothes the idea of where things would go, js enormous wicker chair we sold to an adorable young woman headed to burning man who wanted to sit it on the playa as if it were a throne, plus his red sequined dress from pride years ago, and a few other odds and ends...

we sold things cheap as hell, to make it move you know.. a dolla. two. we were trying to scrounge up a few bucks sure, but there was a lightness that increased the more things went away. all this stuff wed decided we could live without leaving like my snork immortalized in my not so famous "self portrait with snork" which was bungeed to the front of an rv as a burning man mascot. i giggled wildly as talk of equipping her with goggles progressed and waved the vehicle happily away.

and i got a lot of new crap too. not that i needed any...we all did. we traded and bought from each other and as the day grew long we dug through leftovers before sending everything off to salvation army..

at one point a couple bought a book shelf i always thought was ugly for 15!!! big money y'know? then asked for it back when it wouldnt fit in thier car and unloaded it where, with the stuff and shelves stacked beside it was blown over by the wind breaking off the (ugly) ornamental front part. by the end of the day i was offering to pay a dolla if someone would take it away.

ella sold her armoire but as i rounded up my random items mine had not sold and so i expected that the fates had decided i would keep it, as a tribute to my antique loving grandmother or the scrambling kid i had been who thought shed somehow won the lottery when she discovered its beautiful self on sale for 100. so i skipped off with cheets for a drink and when i returned j had sold it for 180. which isnt bad.

i really do love that thing but i already decided i could live without it, so i guess i can.