Monday, May 5, 2008

"Anxiety is the space between the "now" and the "then."
~ Richard Abell
"Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds."
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


(The purpose of two quotes today, will be explained below.)

The only in-between thing I like in life right now, is Fluffer-nutter sandwiches.
Had a big garage sale this weekend. Man, you just don't realize how much crap you've collected over the years until you have to lug it all in and out each freakin' day.
Not to mention, I'm used to going to garage sales and haggling...not having one.
It's not near as much fun. At all.
Especially when you sell your beloved 19-whoknowswhat Pee-Wee Herman Schwinn.
I've done the Beach Cruisers in Florida and the Mountain Bikes up here.
But nothing... nothing compared to my Schwinn.
I loved my Schwinn.
I bought it for $2 at a garage sale years ago.
It had it's original paint job.
It also had it's original seat. Which wasn't comfortable, by any stretch of the imagination.
But I loved my Schwinn.















I will miss my Schwinn dearly.
But it went to a good home. Someone that will appreciate it...and that makes me happy.
I heart people that heart Schwinn's.
Plus, I profited from my $2 original investment.

Didn't do too bad, sale wise. Made enough so Daisy can get her School Yearbook and a little extra.

I'm a sucker though...I can't let little kids come to my garage sale and walk away empty handed, and I don't want to put the parents, whose current financial status I do not know, in an uncomfortable position, so any wee-one that comes to a garage sale of mine, gets to pick any free toy they want. Children never cease to amaze me. Most of them picked a stuffed animal, and not at the coaxing of their parent either, over the video games and board games and other such toys.





Plus...I had a very young couple come the first day, with their 10 month old baby and the Mom proudly announced how happy she was with the assortment of stuff I had out, because they had just gotten their very first house to rent and all they had was a bed, a crib and a can of paint.


Hence, my Good Deed For Little Warrior! (See below!)


They took home whatever they wanted, at no cost.
And they were good people. They could have hogged and taken much more than they needed...hell they could have taken lot's of stuff and then had their own sale...but they didn't.
They took my dinette, some dishes, pots and pans, some paintings and toys for the baby.
Right before they left, she asked me why I had done it and I told her the story of Little Warrior and asked that pay it forward. She said she would...and I believed her.
I couldn't help but be excited for them. I remember that young-and-just-starting-out-feeling!

All the left-overs, got donated to the people that lost everything in the recent tornado's here.
Speaking of which, we're fine H! Came damn near too close for comfort though!
The town on one side of us, got it pretty bad...then it hopped back up over us and came back down, stronger, to the other side of us.
The Arby's up the street is completely demolished.
Woe is me.
I loved Arby's french fries. They were spiced up a bit and I could actually taste them.
Ahhhh...well...what can ya do?!?


Once the siren's started blaring, I could help but sit in the hallway with Daisy and the animals that are still here and think..."Okay, we've lived here, in this house, for 7 years now...with no basement...nowhere to run and take serious cover during tornado's...and we've been lucky. Very lucky. They always seem to diminish right before our town, or move just north or south of us and pass right on by. In less than 13 days, I will be gone and Daisy will be safely living in a finished basement...hence a freakin'-frackin tornado hitting my neighborhood/house...well...that would have just pissed me right off!"


Anyhoo...so yeah...it's been a crazy, emotional week/weekend.
Finally done sifting through everything.
Seeing all my neighbors come and go at the sale got me to thinking about saying goodbye to everyone next week and what I want to say to people.
I know I won't be saying goodbye forever, but still.
I realized that some of the people, I'm gonna have to chicken-peck a little letter too, because if I start to speak, I'll just cry and won't be able to get out what I wanna say.
So yeah, I've been a blubbering mess.
Especially today.
Moby is supposed to leave today. So that has me really on edge.
Nothing has really been resolved as far as his traveling is concerned.
We have to drive him all the way out to the airport this afternoon and they will decide then and there, as to whether or not they will allow him to travel.
Bastards.
Don't they know I HATE THE IN-BETWEEN TIME??
I'm a planner. I have to know things dagnabit!



Next up: I lost something very, very, very, very, very important and precious to me last July, that belonged to my Nana and it's seriously weighed on my mind every, single day since then. I actually didn't know if I'd lost it completely, or if I'd tucked it away somewhere safe and then couldn't remember where that place was...or if I dreamed that I'd tucked it away somewhere safe, etc. Freakin' medicines.


Every single day, since the day we realized it was time to move on from this place, I have woken up and whispered to my Nana's soul, "Please Nana, don't let me leave this house for good without finding it. Please." I know. I'm crazy that way...comes with the brand.
Good news is...I found it!
And I'm relieved and thrilled and happy and a little more at peace now.



Lastly, I'm going to provide another link (The Journey: What You Can Do) to Lizard Eater's blog and copy/paste a post of hers below, (for all two of you! LOL), just in case the link doesn't work for someone else along the way.
It's a brilliant, brilliant idea.
Just think of the goodness YOU can spread if you make this a daily practice, instead of just a one-time-thing!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday, May 03, 2008

What You Can Do
Thank you for all of the prayers and the requests to help. Please don't think I've been avoiding the latter, or blowing off the offers of beads, cookies, anything. I am humbled by your offers and have been giving some serious thought to what we need.
You know what I need?
A way to explain to LW when she's older that even though I empathically do NOT believe this happened for a reason ... short of finding the cure for all cancer, there could not be a reason that would justify this happening to her ... even though this didn't happen for a reason, good still sprang from it. As good can spring from heartbreaking situations.
At the risk of sounding like a lifetime movie or a book by Mitch Albom ... I want to give her a book of good deeds done in her name.
So, my friends ... you asked, here's my answer.
Do a good deed, one you wouldn't ordinarily do. Give a banana to the homeless guy, take a Starbucks gift card to a nurse and ask her to give it to a Mom or Dad who really needs it. Mow someone's lawn.
And then tell me about it.
You can post it here, or post it on your blog and send me the link. Or email it to lizardeater at gmail dot com.
I'll compile all those and get a book printed.
And when she's old enough to ask, "Why?" I'll explain that there is no why. But that good things can still result. And that there were a whole bunch of people sending her love, and the way they showed that love was through action.
Posted by Lizard Eater at 9:41am



Hope everyone is well:)

3 comments:

Heather said...

Sounds like your sale was a success. I'm sure the kind deeds you did will come back to you, one way or the other.

We spent the evening in the storm shelter the other night, too. I have a friend in the Ray-Pec area and called her the next morning to make sure they were alright. Thank God they were. Pretty scary stuff.

I hope Moby makes his trip safely and your wait goes quickly.

Have a good week.

Lizard Eater said...

OMG! I was feeling stressed because I'm going to Hospital #3 tomorrow and I have no idea where, precisely, the right office is (Radiation), and stressed because the echocardiogram is in the afternoon and whatiftheysay we can't do doxorubicin and then I happen to check your blog and find this!

Total mood changer! The first entry in LW's book!
http://lovethroughaction.blogspot.com/

Thank you!!!

(And I so love the Schwinn. And I love garage sales.)

Beth said...

That is so lovely.

Glad your sale was a success.

I'm sad that I won't be able to see you before you leave. *sniff*

But, you'll be back. I KNOW THIS.

I love you always.

*humps you forever*