Garage Sales, Cat Cologne & Purple Rain.

I went to a couple of garage sales, an estate sale and drove by a 'moving sale' (I saw their stuff and thought "keep movin'") this weekend. Normally I'm not a fan of shopping where there's no air conditioning and there's risk of possible heatstroke (I live in Texas), but I passed all these sales while on errands to places I needed to go anyway, and couldn't resist.

The first place I went to was the estate sale, since it was just 2 streets behind my house. My main reason for wanting to go wasn't really bargains, but to see what the house looked like inside. Reason 1: The houses in this neighborhood are older (think 40's/50's) and sooo cute. Imagine hardwood floors, fireplaces in the living room, built in bookshelves and those cool little counters in the kitchen that are rounded on the end, and end in tiers of shelves. TOO COOL! And Reason 2: I always come away from an estate sale feeling better about how the interior of my house looks/smells, etc.

So I pull up to the house and there are already cars lining the street. My first thought is, "It's Saturday. Who they hell is awake at 9:30 AM on a Saturday? Weirdos." Then I remember that I'M there at 9:30AM, but then exclude myself from Weirdoville, 'cause I didn't get up to specifically go to yard sales, but instead, to get my errands over with. Yeah..okay, I'm a weirdo, too. Touche. So, walking up the house, my hopes are already kinda waning. I see some boxes of pillows covered in cat hair and as I'm stepping up on the sidewalk, a box filled with used bathroom toiletries. Let me at em'!...NOT! Who the hell would buy someone's 2/3 full bottle of lotion or toothpaste? Freaks, that's who.

I'm inside now and the first thing I notice is the eau de cat fragrance. Apparently the owner was/is (with most estate sales the owner has passed away, but sometimes their kids are just putting them in a home) a cat owner. Judging from the smell, a MULTIPLE cat owner. Wow. I feel self conscious because I can't control my nostrils from flaring, so I keep my head down and head for the books and records, which turn out to be a letdown. The books mostly consist of those old Reader's Digest condensed books and microwave cookbooks (a cookbook collector's kryptonite). However, I do see 2 cool little wooden boxes. They look kinda old, have hinged lids with black metal clasps. Very cool. I look for a price on them and the smaller one has $4 written on the bottom, so I think "Eureka! I'll get em'. If the small ones just $4, how much could the big one be?" So I ask one of the umpteen women running the estate sale how much the other one is, telling her I see the $4 price on one, but the other isn't priced. She takes the one that's priced and says "Oh, that's what I paid for it. I'm selling it for $20. And the other is $35. I got those at Pier One." I smile as if to say "neat," but I'm really thinking "You are seriously on some industrial-strength crack if you think I'm paying $50+ on 2 Pier One clearance items, one of which has a broken latch!" I quietly set them back down where they were and head towards the dining room, all the while overhearing people saying to each other "Is this really $100? "How much?" etc. I scope the rest of the house, but find nothing, so I head outside, without bothering looking at the boxes with misc. crap in them, sitting in the front yard. Who knows? I might have passed up half a carton of Whoppers for a mere $45! Whatever.

At my next two garage sales I do find a few things: A couple of tapes (Purple Rain soundtrack/Depeche Mode 101) to listen to in the ol' Walkman when I eventually start my exercise routine, 2 CDs (Savage Garden: Affirmation and The Corrs: Talk On Corners Special Edition), a couple of cheesy old cookbooks (Searchlight Recipe Book/Toll House Cookie Cookbook), a cool old liquor decanter shaped like a circus strongman and a cool, unused scrapbook from the 70's. All for under $10! Yaye bacon!

P.s. I got an e-mail from Jane today! I can't believe she wrote me back. What a sweetie. Jane, I say keep Marjorie's designer knockoff shoes. Deep down inside, I think she really wants you to have them. Oh, and I'm working on getting my blog up to blog standards. Promise! :)