Rowing down the stream of consciousness

It’s rather humorous for me to finally come down sick with something and say “Whew! Thank goodness!”

I’ve felt a low level of flu-ish illness for the past month, not sick enough to seek medical advice (especially in my new “uninsured” state of being), not enough to really complain, but definitely enough to just have to sit down, curl up in the fetal position, and fall asleep before 9 p.m. I actually thought it might be a bit of a psychological reaction to taking a new job and losing my health insurance. It has been big grown up drama for the past four weeks and I have been wavering between enjoying my new job, liking my new co-workers, and realizing that I really need to get a different job with affordable health care.

So, imagine my relief when I finally came down with some crappy respiratory thing! I’m not crazy, I’m just sick! Hooray! I called the community health clinic and I made an appointment for as soon as possible which turns out to be June 5. Since one of my co-workers recently had pneumonia I really want to keep a handle on this so I don’t end up getting horribly sick and having to go to the ER or Urgent Care. I may call my real doctor today and ask for a break down of their prices. I feel like a member of Fagin’s gang, prowling the doctor’s waiting room and pocketing free drug samples. Frankly, I think I have lung worms. Or perhaps 24 hour Hunta Virus.

This weekend was the one free weekend that I’ve actually had for the past eighty kajillion months and what do I propose to my daughter? To take our puppy down to Bayfront Park for the Animal Allies fundraising walk on Saturday. There are times when I hear things escaping my mouth and at the exact same time, my brain is going “WHAT THE F@ck??? ARE YOU INSANE?”

Next weekend is the third annual Charitable Crafters garage sale at my garage. The very same garage that is full of my mother-in-laws household. That will be a different garage sale, but for this one, I will need to move things around in order to access tables that we can use and dig out stuff that we’ll be selling. The sale itself will have to be out in my driveway though.

It’s really funny how human beings react to people trying to give them things. Four years ago, I had our first Charitable Crafters “give away” day. Many people donate wonderful yarn and fabric and crafting materials to our group for our volunteers but many of our volunteers want to use up their own stash for their donations. The end result is a huge supply of goodies in my garage. When I had our “give away” day, I advertised it as being for anyone to come and just help themselves and there would be no strings attached, they didn’t have to make something for Charitable Crafters. Guess what? Hardly anyone showed up. The next year, I slapped prices on everything and we were mobbed. Hmmmm. People are funny critters.

So, this year I set the dates for Saturday, May 26. I advertised it to my volunteers. I then realized that it is Memorial Day weekend. Well, I suppose if people are interested enough, they’ll come. Since Duluth is a tourist town, people have a tendency to come here on those vacation days so I’ll be putting the ad in the paper on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

That just leaves the actual job of putting prices on things. And there are quite a few things! Every year I think that there won’t be enough things to make a good sale and then I put it all in a pile and say” Holy Crap!” This year, I'm advertising the fact that if people want to come and help price things on Friday night, they can shop early and I'll feed them pizza. Interested? Give me a shout. In all reality, I would love to have a sale similar to the one at the Textile Center where tons of people brought stuff to sell and it was an "event" every year. Not that I'm looking to make a bunch of money for Charitable Crafters, but because I LOVE getting bargins and finding fun things at garage sales and when those things are crafty things, all the better!

My only real goal for money making at this sale is to cover the cost of an ad in the paper for our celebration this November which we're going to hold at St. Luke's Hospital. We've already surpassed our 10,000th donation but that is what the celebration will be, er, celebrating. I want a big fat ad in the paper in November. And pizza for my pricing volunteers next Friday night.

But currently, I’m tired just thinking about it…