First we got Karl’s take on Saturday … now we get Cathy’s write-up. It’s double-guest-star-riffic!

Back when ebay didn’t take such a big bite out of sales with their fees, I got the fever and was hitting garage sales, estate sales and thrift stores regularly. For every two things I bought to sell on ebay, I’d keep at least one gem for myself. And I got some great stuff.

Then life with small children set in, and making time for garage sales dwindled. UNTIL … a few weeks ago when Jenny & Meghan had a sale of their own and turned me onto their blog. I was inspired and begged them to let me tag along on their next trip.

I had every intention of being responsible about keeping my early-morning commitment. Then I got an unexpected last-minute invite to a party (that I couldn’t refuse) the night before. Stumbling to Meghan’s at 8:30 am with only 4 hours of sleep and alcohol oozing from my pores wasn’t what I had envisioned. I wanted to be PERKY! But instead I clung on for dear life as her car zipped through the streets of Ballard & Greenwood while Jenny flipped through their (very organized) pages of listings saying, “turn here”, “I think it’s at the end of this street”, “oh, we’ve been to this one before” … If I had thrown up the night before, maybe I wouldn’t have felt so much like throwing up at the end of those 4 hours …

My experience was way overshadowed by my hangover, which is most likely why I lack enthusiasm looking back on the day … I remember a lot of stuff I wasn’t looking for (clothes, books, records) with some selections of merchandise that surprised me when I looked at the people running the sale. That’s always been one of my fave things about garage sale shopping — getting a peek into the lives behind the doors of strangers (or sometimes neighbors). One of my favorites was the chick with the huge collection of cheesy Elvis memorabilia for sale (and a really odd grouping of surplus corporate gear — tees, pens, hats, bags, etc — in the back yard). When we were leaving, I glanced in the window of the living room and saw an Elvis lampshade and bust on the end table. That sort of shattered the story I had imagined of her outgrowing the Elvis collection and moving on. I guess she was just thinning out some duplicate pieces. Hunk-a, hunk-a, and all that.

My friend Leigh had given me an address (at the party the night before) for her friend Heidi’s sale. Luckily, she wrote it on a sticky and put it on my dashboard, so it was there when I got in the car to head to Meghan’s. I bought my only real purchases of the day at Heidi’s — a pair of poodle mosaics and two little chalkware poodle heads.

Next time I promise to spend the night before on the couch watching a movie instead of drinking mystery champagne cocktails on Tasha’s porch until 3 am …

Thanks Cathy! We’ll get you out with us again soon … hung over or not!