Knock Wood

I think that Karma has finally either figured out the hubby and I have had all the stress, depression and aggravation that we can handle, or else she's found some other poor suckers to pick on. While I certainly hope it is for the former reason - because I would never wish our crappy situation to be visited on someone else (and therefore putting us right back in that Karmic merry-go-round) I'm content just to accept the current status. I'm in a much better frame of mind than I've been in for a few months.

We were resisting the second Yard Sale Saturday and entertained thoughts of calling it off. But the boxes of stuff in our garage were just begging to be hauled out and strewn about our yard for strangers to pick over and haggle about. Let me tell you, there is a special humiliation that comes with putting a (cheap) price on your belongings and then either having someone react as if you were trying to rob them - complete with looks of incredulity, or having them reject your items outright - complete with looks of disgust. My fragile little ego (ha) was just NOT up to the challenge.

However ... we "pulled ourselves up by the bootstraps" and jumped in. Much to our surprise, the second Saturday was a thousand times better. For starters - we were much more motivated to simply get rid of the stuff instead of worrying about how much money we'd be able to make. We also had twice the traffic from last week - thanks to my mom for making even more signs to put up - and almost everyone seemed much nicer.

For the record - if I ever have another yard sale:

If you are friendly, and you laugh and banter with me a little bit it's fairly certain that I'll let you have that watch with the $5 tag on it for the $2 you countered with. Especially if you're one of those cute elderly men that loves to flirt (tastefully) with all us sweaty, tired women.

However, if you bark out a snobby "Ha!" when I tell you the price, and you then respond that you'll give me $2 for the watch and you use that tone of voice that implies I'm stupid and you're doing me a favor while your shrew of a wife is harping at me that "the battery for the watch will cost more" than the $5 I'm asking ... well, then... it's quite likely I'm going to have to strongly resist the urge to grab that stupid watch right out of your greedy little paw and shove it right down your horrid wife's throat.
I'll even give YOU the $2. It would have been worth it.

(And yes that was an incredibly long run-on sentence but I had to do it. Otherwise, it just didn't convey the rising anger in my head at that moment. Forgive me, Messrs Strunk and White.)

And in case you were wondering - the cute little guy in the first example - who also told my husband he was brave to spend the day with "all these goodlookin' women" - is the one who got the watch. I almost gave him a little smooch on the cheek to go with his new watch.


Now ... saving my two favorite bits of good news for last .... (drum roll please)

I got an email from my freelance client Saturday night telling me that she understood the reasons for missing my deadline, she still wanted to work with me, and she very graciously replaced the topics of the next 25 articles I get to write with topics MUCH more suited to my writing style, AND she still is interested in letting me write a regular blog on her website in the future.

Say it with me,

HOLY FREAKIN' COW, MAN !!!!

I was so happy and relieved I could have cried.

Last but not least... I have a job interview tomorrow. Want to guess what it's for? C'mon ... what would a good little (book- geek) girl like me want for a job?

A part-time job at our neighborhood library!! Whoo-hoo !!!

So, now you may understand why I feel like Karma is not quite so pissed off at us any more. Somewhere, sometime, we must have done something right to turn the tide.

Knock wood.