for sale, my life

I spent this week sifting through closets and drawers in the apartment, trashing old unusable things, and sorting out the nice stuff suitable for sale. Then Friday and Saturday I joined Diane, one of the other front desk folks at the music school, at her garage sale; she offered to let me sell the housewares I'd been purging in exchange for a bit of company over the two days. We had a lot of fun chatting, drinking coffee, and eating chocolate with another one of her friends who joined the fun, Jan.

I sold lots of things: the TV with the built-in VCR, my shoe-rack, lots of place-mats, all my baskets, and on and on. Diane had a bunch of kids' stuff for sale and she was happy to give most of it away for free to the kids that came through. We negotiated on a lot of the prices because all three of us just wanted to get rid of our clutter, and we were all quite successful - I took home less than half the items I started with, plus a new giant suitcase (an old one of Diane's which I traded for the TV) and some cold cash.

Diane's neighborhood reminded me a lot of the neighborhood where my brother and his wife now own a house, on the south side of Minneapolis. There were lots of families that came through, many Spanish speakers, cute little kids, and hilarious empty-nesters. There was one family, in particular, that came back several times and ultimately purchased almost half of the things I was selling - including my oldest and most utilized backpack.

The family moved to Chicago from the Philippines within the last year, and seem to be adjusting well. Mom has a job at a Dunkin' Donuts on the southwest side (although their home is on the north side), and they have two adorable girls who got incredibly lucky with all the free stuffed animals they took home. They are just starting to get things together in their new home, so they needed a lot of the things we were selling - they bought shelves, baskets, holiday decorations, etc. It was super cool to think of them - getting their life together in a new place - and myself - trying to pack up my life here and readying myself for the next several months in an unknown place - and how we criss-crossed paths just at the right moment.

They are the new owners of my iconic one-strap Jansport backpack, which has carried my college thesis research texts, my laptop while I was making trips to-and-from the coffee shop conducting my job-search last year, and my groceries on bike-rides from Trader Joe's. I hope it serves them as well as it served me.

In the next few weeks, I have to continue the job of cleaning house. Namely, my furniture will have to go, including my little tan recliner that I have lounged in since age 9. More on the emotional turmoil of parting with "the Erica seat" to come...