Take My Stuff. Please!

A few weeks ago, I helped my mom clean out her attic and have a yard sale. Valuable Lesson Relearned at Every Yard Sale: No one will pay as much for your stuff as you originally did.

A Few Favorite Finds from the Attic:
1. A 5" floppy disk of Quicken (trashed).
2. A time capsule I made when I was seven (saved).
3. A globe with the U.S.S.R. on it (first item sold of the day – ha!).

Most Popular Item Among Kids: A totally 80s gray and pink Le Clic camera. When I set it out that morning, I said that it would be a hit. Indeed, almost every kid that came by dropped to his or her knees and started playing with it. In the end, two little kids bought it and were so excited! Before I even looked up, I knew they were playing with it when I heard little voices saying, "Cheese!" They shyly brought me 50 cents and scurried off to play with their new toy. Super cute.

Most Popular Item Among Adults: An old bike. Go figure.

Most Popular Item Not for Sale: My old Little People dollhouse. I was going to sell it, but by the time I set it up, I couldn't part with it. I set it to the side and got a number of inquiries, but I selfishly stood firm.

Most Profitable Customer: An antiques dealer came by and got a bunch of stuff. Yes, my mom has good taste :)

Hardest Item to Move: A sleeper sofa. My mom recently remarked to my uncle about my lack of upper body strength. His matter-of-fact reply: "She can't help it." We laughed about that A LOT.

Speaking of which...

The coworker I just referenced is actually a new coworker. "New hire?" you may ask? No, that would be me. I'm the new hire!

I changed jobs recently. It's exciting, nerve-wracking, challenging, and all kinds of things wrapped up together.

Just thought I'd mention it!

Filter much?

Excerpt from my day:

Coworker: "I have a couple of questions for you. Do you want to do it now or later?"

Me: "Just let me finish up this little thing I’m working on. It will be 10 minutes or less. Like a pizza! But that would be really fast for a pizza."

As soon as I said it, I realized that last part would have been better left as a portion of my inner monologue.

Low Point(s)

I injured my hand today while car dancing to "Life is a Highway." Enough said.

Pay It Forward

My friend Amanda is dong this, and I thought it sounded like a cool idea (largely because I love both sending and receiving things in the mail!).

She's picking three random people who comment (not just the first three who comment), and I'll (diplomatically) do the same. Also, you don't have to do it on your blog, Facebook, etc. if you don't want to. I'm really doing this for the above-mentioned thrill of mail ;)

Enjoy and comment away!

"Here's how it works: the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive are a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well – before you leave your comment here, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then come back, let me know you're going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Remember that only the first 3 comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!"

Part of Your (Blog) World

I'm so excited to finally be tagged! Secretly, I have wanted someone to tag me for a while, so thanks Meredith for making my day!

Here are the rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open to page 56.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.

5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!

6. Tag five (or more) other people to do the same.

I have a number of reading materials around me, so I let Dixie pick which one I should use:

Here's the pick: The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs. It's about a man's experience in reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica. He organizes his book through highlights of actual entries. Page 56 lands me in the Ds (and contains a bit of an ironic entry for me).

Descartes, René (the 5th sentence on the page is the last line of this entry)

"And if that's not enough of a good thing, consider this: Descartes liked to stay in bed till 11 A.M.—good ammunition the next time anyone gives me flak about sleeping late.

Deseret News
"I always thought the name of Utah's major newspaper was some sort of weird misspelling of the word 'desert.' But no, Deseret is the 'land of the honeybee,' according to the Book of Mormon. I guess I should have figured they would have caught a typo in the masthead after 154 years."


I know some people don't like to do tags, so don't feel like you have to do it. But since I wanted to do a one so much, I thought I'd pass it along in case someone feels similarly: Brittany, Tammy, Alvin, Ariel, and Heidi.

Image from barnesandnoble.com.

I went to Las Vegas and came back with a disease.

Influenza, that is. According to my doctor, "classic flu" comes on very quickly. And since I'm such a classic girl, I went from fine to bedridden in 4 short hours the day after I came back. Having spent a week in bed, here are my thoughts from the experience:

1. I can keep everything I need on my bed and bedside table. This includes food, medication, thermometer, tissues, beverages, etc. If some sort of bizarre flood came and I had to use my bed as a raft, I'd be prepared.
2. I knew I was in trouble when the doctor a.) came in wearing a face mask and b.) made me wear one to leave the office.
3. Fevers are stupid.