We set up the screen tent for our whimsies and got out our rummage sale stuff. After playing two or three games of Yahtzee, we went to bed. I had a horrible time sleeping that first night.
I was dragging on Friday. We set up the pegboard and put the table in the screen tent. As that was happening, Sass and Tony showed up. Tony was more than excited to see me! Let me just say a few things about Tony that I may have mentioned before, but are worth repeating. Tony has ADHD (Attention Defeceit/Hyperactivity Disorder) to a very extreme case. He can't sit still, let alone leave anyone's side.
After seeing Tony run around the van and the house a few times, I knew I was in for a long weekend. I helped with as much as I could on Friday, but I was so pooped out from lack of sleep and the sudden sleep cycle change, that I was not in a very good mood to deal with Tony.
Gloria showed up in the evening, bringing Olivia, my cousin Tracy's first child. (Tracy is Gloria's daughter). Anyways, Olivia is the first kid that I've wanted to meet. She's just under 3 years old, and she's really smart. Mom and my aunts have said that Olivia reminds them of me when I was her age.
Grandma and the family have been on Weight Watchers, doing that point system. So, all the meals were prepared to be health-conscientious (sp?) so that meant they were pretty blah. I wasn't feeling like I was getting enough sugars, but getting too many meals. Weird, huh?
So, Saturday rolls around, and the sale is to start at 9am, Michigan time! Yikes! That's fucking early! So, I get up at 8am, and away the day goes...
I set up camp in the whimsy tent and wait. People start showing up, not really realizing what's in the tent. People look, but nobody is really looking for crafts, I think. Finally around 10am, someone is REALLY interested in the whimsies. She brings her friend over, and her husband, and she is just so thrilled by the whimsies.
She buys 4 of them, and wants to make sure she has our business card. I feel like the morning is almost worth while. Time drags on. Tony won't leave me alone. I'm getting hungry. I'm tired. It's blazing hot! It's super humid, and Tony won't leave me alone.
Lunch time rolls around and I eat. I only eat a little bit, because my stomach wasn't that hungry by the time I actually ate. I releave Mom of her rummage sale calculating duty so she can go eat. She comes back, and right about that time, people start showing up to buy more whimsies.
A few more are sold. I'm still trying to get Tony to leave me alone. The heat is intolerable, and many people aren't even venturing out to come to the sale. :( I sit in the garage and talk with Mom and Sass. The sale is finally over, and we totalled not as high as Mom would have liked (for the whimsies, that is).
Packing up was actually kinda fun. Olivia and Tony helped me. Sass, Glo, Mom and Wayne (and Lana - Uncle Wayne's wife) were packing up stuff in the garage. The screen tent was all cleared and the whimsies were all packed away. I was so warm. (I didn't have shorts with me -- nor do I sweat through my arms and legs, so I was roasty toasty).
After everything was mostly packed, we ordered pizza, but since the family is slow to get around to getting things organized, I tallied what everyone wanted, and we ordered shortly after things were packed into vehicles. I ran into town to get it, and came back. (well, I drove, since it's about 3 miles to the Pizza Hut).
After dinner, we all got the giggles when it came to dessert. Oh, the cheesecake. That poor cheesecake that was never meant to be. More on that later, if I get around to it.
It was nice to laugh so much that my stomach hurt afterwards. I helped clean up the table, and then Wayne and Lana left for their house. The day was winding down a bit, but Tony still didn't want to leave my side. He wanted to get online (thanks to the last time he was at Grandma's, he got to play on a game site for kids and like any kid, wanted to do it over and over again).
Saturday night ended kinda late. Everyone but Mom and I would be leaving on Sunday, so goofiness was a must.
Sunday morning everyone got up to go to church. Oh, the noise in the house. The hubbub of everyone eating breakfast, brushing teeth, getting dressed, that sorta thing. I don't get to experience that much anymore... well, not at all, in fact. I almost miss that.
I got up when everyone left and I went online to check email. I tidied up the house a bit, and then everyone was back. Tony couldn't stop talking to me while I was writing an email to Ryan. He wanted to know what I was doing, and when he was going to get a chance to get online. Oh yeah, and everything that I clicked on, he thought it was going to be the page that had his games! That kid has no concept of the world outside of him. (He also played at another site, Cartoon Network: a site that I think has some more problem solving skill usage games than the other site).
Lunch time rolled around. Sass and Tony left after lunch. Ahh... peace from Tony. What a relief. Finally I got a chance to hang out with Olivia. Test her skills, that sorta thing.
Mom wanted to play with Olivia too. So, it turned out the three of us colored while Glo gathered up her and Olivia's stuff. Then Mom rolled around on the floor with Olivia.... she's a fun kid. She gives kids a good name. But her and her alone. Enough about that kid talk. Almost giving me the creeps.
So, Glo was supposedly going to get on the road by 2pm, but didn't leave until about 3:15pm! That's Glo for ya. The house was near empty. Gram asked if Mom and I wanted to play some Yahtzee, so we started a game. Then played another.
Sass called to tell she had arrived home. She thanked me about 3 more times for helping keep Tony occupied and for helping around the house and being so pleasant.
It's nice to get praise. No matter who you are, you tend to feel better after someone praises you.
While we were playing another round of Yahtzee, Meggie (Grandma's dog) started barking. It turns out that one of Grandma's friends decided to stop by to see if Mom and I and more importantly, the whimsies were still here. She was interested in buying some more!
She bought nearly $30 more stuff and was excited about them. She just kept saying that she knew what whimsy would go to what person. She was one of those people who really LOVES the whimsies. That's good for me and Mom.
The rest of the night was pretty ordinary. More Yahtzee, and then bed. I kept expecting Ryan to call and I was waiting and waiting, but no call. So I wrote an email saying that we were all heading to bed. He musta been shocked when he saw the TIME I sent it. (It normally would have been mid-day for me).
I woke up Monday, showered and whatnot, and we were on the road. We stopped at one casino we'd never gone to. Of course we had to see what they had. It's in this little town called Christmas. They have X-mas stuff up all over the town. It was kinda funny... no snow, but X-mas decorations everywhere.
The casino was nearly as dinky as the town. They had some slots that I've never played before, but I didn't do too well. Such is life. We wanted to get on the road to get home, and to stop in this shop in Munising to see if we would sell whimsies there.
So, that was our next stop. And guess what?! We sold stuff! (Not scads of it, but enough to see what's its like to walk into a store and just have the owner look over your stuff and BOOM, buy it!)
After we left Munising, we stopped at another casino. My favorite casino. I didn't do too bad. I didn't lose any money (of mine anyways), and I got to play for hours on $20. So that was decent. Although the security guy was a bit putzy about getting around to checking my ID. I even entered the other set of doors, so when he realized I was walking around, he had to card me. I'm 23 years old, but apparently I still look young enough to be carded at a casino. (and he's seen me there before... I'm not getting any younger). So he stamped my hand with the little palm tree.
After we left the second casino, we realized how late it had become, and we decided that we shouldn't make any more stops...
...until after getting some ice cream and buying some cheese at this really good cheese place. And THEN we decided we were just heading straight home. No more stops.
A four-ish hour trip turned into a full work-day instead. Oops. We got to Mom's house, unloaded the car. Went to Dad's to get my girls and my keys and then we went to my house to unload my girls and my stuff. What an extra long ending to a long day of travel!
All in all, I'm happy to be home, but I was glad I got a chance to see Grandma (and her house) again, and finally meet Olivia.
Carisa
Happy idea for today:
(From: 14,000 things to be happy about. by Barbara Ann Kipfer)
counting your change (p. 39)
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