I couldn’t sleep at all last night, then got up early to go to garage sales and rummage sales with my girlfriend.  The first sale we went to was a rummage sale at a church near my house.  It’s a really big, well-attended church, and they always have a ton of things to look at.  My girlfriend found a large game (toy of some kind) and asked one of the volunteers the price…The volunteer said there was a tag on the game for $5, so my girlfriend said she’d take it.  The volunteer was taking it to the check out area when (I believe) the head volunteer asked her if she’d sold it, and the volunteer said yes, for $5.  Apparently the head volunteer thought they were selling it for $40, so started yelling loud enough for the entire sale to hear her, about how this item sells for almost $200 in stores and why would she think they should sell it for $5…blah blah blah.  There is NOTHING worse then a public display of aggression….especially when that aggression is directed toward a volunteer.  I felt so badly for her…having every person turn to witness her being screamed at….I think she should have taken her apron off and told the head volunteer that no one should be treated like this, especially someone giving their time to their church.  It was appalling.

This sale has over 1,000 items for sale, and how the head volunteer can keep track of every price is beyond me…but, she also kept track of where things were placed, as an elderly woman asked for my help because she looked at a picture frame and then when she put it back, it wouldn’t stay leaning against the wall, and kept falling over.  So I picked up a small box of picture frames and leaned them against a corner of the larger frame (as the elderly lady was concerned the box would hide the frame, and once I put it there, she said she could see the frame with no problem…)  As soon as the scream fest was over, the head volunteer walked the length of the sale, found the box of frames I’d leaned against the larger frame and started muttering about people moving things, and put the small box of frames back where they originated (about a foot away.)  I’m not one to let things slide (you probably know that,) so I told the head volunteer why I’d moved the box, and oddly, she said that made sense, and moved the small box back.  I was really tempted to say, “And by the way, if I was the volunteer you just yelled at, not only would I have stopped volunteering here, but I would have talked to the pastor about your rude behavior.”  Yes, I’m that girl.  I’m all for the underdog, and can’t stand it when someone uses power to make someone else feel like they are less.  But, I was with my girlfriend, who was already feeling terrible because she felt she caused the argument with her interest in the game…The real fault lies with whoever put the $5 price tag on the game, and of course the head volunteer wanted to know that as well….so I’m sure, she could scream at someone else.  It would have been the highlight of her day if she could have fingered the culprit.

We left that sale and went to a garage sale held by two little old ladies, and you know I’m a sucker for them…They had an outside table that was low, but looked like it would adjust to a taller height.  I’ve been looking for a small dining table for on our patio, and asked them how tall the table would go….The one lady said, “I’ll show you,” and the other said, “I’ll bring a chair.”  So they adjusted it and had me sit in the chair to see if it would work…It was perfect, and I was happy…

I bought a bunch of small things today and had a good day..probably the best day of garage sales for the year.  I’ve been buying a bunch of large frames for my diamond paintings and now just need to figure out how to get mats for them, and then I can give them as gifts..I found two more today.

When I got home, I was happy to see that Rich had brought our round black kitchen table to our garage and sanded it, as I wanted to repaint and polyurethane it.  So we spent the rest of the afternoon doing that and doing the same to the matching chairs…I feel like we’ve really accomplished something today, although tomorrow, I probably won’t be able to move, it was still worth it.

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