Whew.

What a weekend. Already, and Sunday's barely started. This was the weekend of the Empty Closet Sale. Elizabeth's school does this once a year. It's a big ol' rummage sale. Parents can rent an 8-foot table at the sale. The rental fee goes to the school, and the parents keep the money from whatever they sell. So two friends and I got together to rent four tables. One of the friends had to go out of town this weekend, so the other friend and I figured we could man the four tables on our own. (The out of town friend was on hand Friday night to help us set up, which was exhausting in itself. It took two Grand Caravans and an SUV to get all of our stuff to the school, with a second trip for each of the Grand Caravans.)

Wrong. When the school doors were unlocked Saturday morning at 8AM, there was a huge crowd waiting to get in. They came pouring in the gym doors, everyone on a mission. They did the rummage sale shopper once over first, where they make a circuit of all the tables, checking things out. Then they shop. So my friend looked at me all bummed, and said, "They didn't even STOP at our tables." Five minutes later, and for the next two hours, we were elbow deep in crowds holding armloads of things from our tables. It was absolutely insane. We'd get one person taken care of, and turn to see three more waiting to pay us. We were sweating after fifteen minutes.

Between the three of us, we had four 8-foot tables crammed full. The floor space beneath the tables was full. We pulled our tables back about six feet (after checking with the school librarian) from the aisle to utilize the space in front of our tables for tubs of small furniture, books, VHS tapes, and CDs. At the end of the day, we had one small cardboard box of stuff left. We were floored. And thrilled. And slightly wealthier. ;-)

It's so nice doing that with a friend. We enlisted one another to support us in our "don't buy anything at the sale" effort. Our goal was to clear out our houses and make money, not spend money and bring in more junk. She did better than I - things kept catching my eye after it slowed down at our booth. I'd scurry off to another table, hold it up to show her, and she'd yell "No" across the gym at me. I'd put it down and slink back to our table. At one point, I found something and went to check it out while she was busy with someone purchasing at our table. As I picked it up, her 9-yo daughter came running up to me. "My mom says you can't have that." Heh. Now THAT'S a good friend. I did very well, hardly bought anything. I purchased two books for Alexander, because his reading is really taking off lately. And aside from Hop On Pop, we don't have many early reader stuff left.

And my friend gave me this:
http://www.ballarddesigns.com/jump.jsp?itemID=2128&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C9%2C74%2C320&iProductID=2128

She had it in the sale for $5, and I snagged it for my living room. Kev, because he's wonderful, installed it last night, and it looks beautiful.

So there's my big long rummage sale story. Hope it entertained. Whee.

Whew.