Hey nuts… Its me again… So… Over the past few weeks I have been working the Louisiana Ren Fest and have been quite busy with that. Doing the RenFest can blow a lot of money. You have garb (clothing), gas, food, tent repairs (if any), make-up (Im a troll… no really… a troll) not to mention all the drinks for the night. Well this year about half way through the faire I get a call from the boss. It seems that the Flea Market that she had stuff at in Hammond, La. is not going to well and she is having to close the booth. She tells me that she would like to have a garage sale at my house which is actually out in Metiairie,, about 15 miles from downtown New Orleans. I think about it and figure that it would not be a bad thing to get some of the money I am spending back. “Sure. Why not. It sounds good to me.” I say knowing that I have a HUGE amount of junk in the extra bedroom in my house. What could possably go wrong? 
Now three weeks out is plenty of time to get stuff together and even pull more from other areas of the house not to mention the garage which needs cleaning bad… thats for sure. Faire is my main motavation druing this time so needless to say at the end of the weekend, on the long drive back from Hammond, I usually think about the weekend. I get up on Monday and recover, this needs to happen, and gain my voice back. On Tuesday I am all about getting ready for work and getting stuff done that didnt happen druing the weekend. Then Wensday I work the day shift so I get up after working the night before until 12am and get back to the office for 10am until 4pm. Thursday is always spent running around getting stuff ready for Friday morning when I head back to faire. So needless to say the garage sale was NOT on my “high” list. It got forgot and basicly put aside until the last weekend of fair. I remembered that it had to happen.
On the last weekend of faire I always stay until Monday because I need to say goodbye to my friends that I will not see for another year as well as pack all my tent stuff and head back to Metairie and unload. I get a call from my boss asking me if im ready for the next weekend and I had to explain how it was dificult for me to get ready because of my schedule during faire, kinnda hoping she would call it off until after the New Year. No luck… So I arranged to have one more weekend before the sale.
The next week was full of move this, clean this, pack this, throw this. Now that I am on medication for my ADHD I am VERY focused on anything I am working on to the point of being obsessive about it. Things just cant be put aside they have to be up in a place or tossed. This takes a tremendious extra amount of time but shit gets done. My boss calls me and tells me that she needs for me to run her to Hammond to pick up her stuff from her house there. Its Wensday morning and she wants to go on Friday morning before I go to work that night. Saturday I have to go back to Hammond to pick up my big tent before work Saturday night. Not to mention unloading all this stuff into the garage, which has just become clean. I say “Yea. Thats good for me. I can do that.” Remember I work until 12am the night before as well as the other nights. We get through all that and Im just glad to be home on Sunday with nothing to do other than get ready for the sale.
Sunday morning I go into the garage to assess how to get my tent in because of all the stuff I have brought for the boss to the house. Its a mess but can be done. I unload all the tent stuff into the garage. After looking it over I get this overwhelming depression because the garage is now a mess again and I dont take my meds on Sunday. The depression is really about what looks to me like a failure due the fact that the once clean garage is now a mess again. So other than unloading the tent nothing gets done on Sunday and Im still tired from the other things. I work on collecting things for the sale some more then just give up for the day and go to bed.
The rest of the week is a mess with my schedule and trying to get everything ready and of course havinng a major meltdown on the Friday night before did not help. Meltdown was my fault but still it was bothersome over the next week. Finally on Thursday night the boss calls and says that she will meet me at 7am at my house to help get the stuff out of the garage and to the front of the house. I start to think about this and it does nothing to improve my mood. I work until 12am, get home at 12:30am, lay down to sleep and get to sleep about 1am and now I have to get up at 6am to have my coffee before she gets there at 7am. This gives me about 5 hours of sleep. I get home and put my head down and my mind decides that sleep is just not an option. I wake up hourly all night. 6am comes and I get up.
I am running on coffee and adrillian. I start unloading the garage. She gets there about 7:15a because of trouble catching a cab. As Im pulling the stuff out she is helping until she finds stuff she is intrested in. I loose her to finding stuff she did not know she had. I finally get all the boxes out and start unloading them onto the few tables we have. Its 7:45a and people start showing up for the sale and start going through stuff. The sale dosent start until 9a!!! She starts helping people while I get the other tables out as well as MY stuff. Not to mention that my back is already starting to hurt. Ill admit.. my bloodpressure is rising. Im getting steamed. Garage sale rats, my current name for the early birds, start asking me quesitons and they all seem to be about my stuff. Cant they see Im TRYING to unpack the crap for them to buy. I tell my boss that she can sell my stuff for whatever she would like but it seems she is uncomfortable pricing my crap so I take over. I finally get everything out and its finally 9am.
I sit there in a vegatative state answering questions and pricing stuff. Most of the stuff is going for a buck or two. My boss comes to me and says that Im pricing stuff too low and I should start higher. I know she is just trying to help but its my stuff! I carry on. Its the start of the day and people are asking me for deals. REALLY!?! I just told you that the brand new, in box, video game is $3…. hell the damn lable is on it and it says $25 and you want a fuckinng DEAL?? “No… I am selling those for $3.” I am constantly picking stuff up and moving it back to my tables. Its not bad enough that the sale is all the way down the drive way but now people are asking for deals then putting stuff down just anywere they please. Its driving me nuts. Then it happened… and the bad part is I forgot to take my meds.
I guy comes up to me to pay for a framed poster. I look at it knowing that my Father, who passed away back in 2003, gave to me. When I was getting stuff ready for the sale I was focused. I was going to change from being someone who had to hold on to every memory to the type of person who would hold on to the memory and let the stuff go. I looked at that poster as the man handed me the $5 and I watched him walk off. There went one of the things my Father had given me and hoped that I would read it when I felt like quitting. It was a poster of a poem called “Dont Quit”. I was watching my life walk away for a few dollars a piece. It got me down. I walked around looking at stuff and making sure I did not want it. My mind kept goinng back to the poster. I sat and got a little teary eyed. I thought about it and looked at the time. “OH CRAP!” My boss looked at me and said “What?” “My MEDS! They are the only way I will make it through this sale!” I ran in the house and took them. 20 min. later I was ok with everything happening. I needed to focus on the fact that I was 
doing all this for a reason. To clear the stuff I did not need in my life and move on.
I carried on for the day even after finding out that someone took me for a bunch of DVD’s because I did not check the box. I started checking everything after that. I finally got to 2:30p and needed to get ready for work. I got ready and gave the boss a ride back to her house and went to work. After an uneventful night at work… and I MEAN unevenful, no one was buying anything, I went home to get my 5 hours of sleep.
The next mornning I dawn all the clothing I need to make it. This particular weekend it has been one of the coldest weekends we have had all year with lows in the mornings of around 38 when I came out to get started. I sat in the driveway, in the cold, waiting on the boss to get there. We start uncovering stuff and she needs to come in the house to go to the restroom. We start to walk in and she says “You dropped a dollar.” and hands it to me. I didnt have my hands in my pockets but it was possable. I take the dollar and let her in. This day was filled with even MORE idiots than Friday was. If it was a $1 they asked if I would take 50 cents or a quarter. It was frustrating but I needed to get rid of the stuff so I did make a few deals. One of our last customers was a lady who looked a lot like a grown up version of a girl I dated back in High School. I just looked up and said… “Why are you screwing with me?” and continued doing what I could without looking at her. She finally left and I told my boss it was almost time for me to get going or I was going to be late. She made arrangements for me to be late and I rushed to get my stuff packed and took my shower and went to work. My boss stayed behind to clean up her stuff and got a ride from her friend. She called me when she got home and asked me how I did during the sale. I said “About $286…You?” She paused…. and laughed. “I had a bank of $150 when I started and now after buying lunch for me and my friend as well as cab rides and buying stuff from you and her… I lost $5.” “WTF?!” I said…”How?! This sale was for you to make money as well!”. She said “Stuff Happens… Its ok.” After all was said and done… I made more money than her and her friend and all thier flea market things and I only had about half of what she did.
All and all I learned a few things about myself. Sometimes letting go is the best thing you can do, Sometimes you need to stay firm in your dealings and sometimes its actually time to make a deal, garages sales are a bitch to put on, always remember to take your medication and just when you think you are letting go of everything you dont need… the world will make sure you know there is always something there to remind you.
Its all about the Fuckin'... 