MOM-Demonium!!!

I am spending a chunk of my week shopping/working our local kid's consignment sale. I know that in a lot of areas around the US, these sales can be hit or miss, but the one I'm talking about is Ginormous. Seriously. It takes up two buildings of our State Farigrounds, and is 150,000 square feet. Hundred thousand, you read that right.


As in, an eyebgall estimate puts the amount of play kitchens selling b/t $5-55 around 140. As in, I checked out a family of 4 yesterday buying their entire summer wardrobe. It was 78 pieces of clothing, they probably spent around $200 total. As in, 36 aisles of clothing for children ages preemie through 9th grade.


I love some consignment shopping, and when I'm there I always want to kick myself for buying something at a store, like "why would have ever paid full-price for a lifejacket, when I can come here and find one with tags for $7?" My other finds? A very clean and solidly built toybox for $25, a Kelty hardframe backpack carrier for $30, an Aquadoodle that looked like it had been used 3 times for $2, lots of books and CD's for just a few dollars.


And my favorite: the super-cool and retro Fisher Price cassette player that was just like the ones my husband and I had as kids.



The best deal I saw all day from checking others out? A beautiful vintage Strasburg ivory chiffon overlay dress for $2.


Another reason I love going to these sales are to see the "serious" moms. Now, I'm still pretty much a novice at these events myself...I've only been to three or four. I know enough to go for the big items first, pay and have them reserved, then hit the other rooms. I brought two of my own shopping bags to carry things in, but made the mistake of hitting the books/media room first. No biggie, I needed the exercise of lugging 20 books and DVDs around. It was after I found the Aquadoodle and adorable purple butterfly baby doll stroller that folded up just like a Maclaren that I started to struggle. Specifically, trying to keep track of all of that while shifting through a table of cloth diapers for my sister. Luckily, just when I hit my breaking point I found the Kelty and all was good.


Some of the veterans amaze me, while I secretly judge them for feeling so superior with their fancy home-rigged set-ups. Lots have clothing racks that they wheel around, often with bins duck-taped to the bottom and/or top to put toys. Most have strollers (sans baby) or at least the big plastic Step 2 wagons. My favorite are the ones with rolling trash bins.

And as I contemplate the clutter in my own home and why I feel the need to buy this child even MORE clothes and books, I often wonder if any of the shoppers there are hoarders. I wonder if their children have more stuff than they know what to do with because mom just can't pass up a $1 Gap t-shirt for no other reason than "it's so cheap".


But unlike me, they are probably not so lazy that they don't weed through their own stuff and purge for the sale beforehand, pretty much breaking even.


Sigh. I could get more organized if I didn't sign up to work these events, right?

This Proves My Legitimacy, Right?

You know, a legitimate wordsmith, reader, literary soul?

Two things: number one, I got a book reader for Christmas. How exciting is that? My mom just bought it for me without asking, and when I opened it she said "have you ever thought about getting one of those?" Well, not really, because they're so ungodly expensive that I just figured that was not something I would put on any list to ask someone to buy me. But now that I have it, I'm so excited for the possibilities.

It would have helped me avoid the debacle I currently find myself in. The one where I'm sitting at work, alone, for 2 hours because we got 8" of snow and apparently I'm the only person in my office that A) has a 5-speed Mazda that can handle anything, B) didn't make the boss' list of people to call to inform we were on delay, and C) didn't feel like digging around to find the emergency voicemail number to find out for myself.

Also, my secret plan was to escape for 2 hours by myself and read one of my new books (or a tabloid mag) at Barnes and Noble, Starbucks bought with a giftcard in hand. I really mean this was my plan, to show up at work, see if anyone was there, and then backtrack 2 miles to B and N and just enjoy my own company, ALONE, after the hubbub of the past 5 days.

Except that sitting in an iced over parking lot, phoning the bookstore to find out they didn't open until 10 threw a wrench into that plan, so that didn't happen either. Oops. So you get a long overdue blog post, totally on the fly, instead.

*Sidenote: to anyone who was actually reading my "12 Days of Christmas" posts, I do still intend to highlight a charity each week from now until I've run out of places to give my money to. I just assumed that no one was reading it due to lack of comments, and also my life exploded with work stress and Christmas prep all at the same time, so I kind of just lived blog-free for a while.*

But the second reason that proves I am bookworm? My son has my genes. Through and through. After receiving a myriad of presents, most of which light up and sing to him, including a mini 4-wheeler and a life-size tool bench, he cried at bedtime last night over one toy. A Book. My dear, sweet, 16-month old budding wordsmith cried because I would not let him take his new favorite book to bed with him.

It may have been the proudest I have ever been as a mother.

This Girl is From Tobacco Road

As a sports fan, there are several events that I quite enjoy. The World Series, especially if the Red Sox are playing. The Superbowl is always required watching, preferably at a party with beer and some type of nachos. The Stanley Cup Finals are never missed in my household, and most of the time we even watch the rest of the playoffs. Even if it's some crap like Florida Panthers versus the Phoenix Coyotes, we would still watch.

But in all the hours of sports I watch in a year, there is nothing that gets me more excited than College Basketball. I know that people from Canada and Texas will never understand the excitement, but I'm a North Carolina girl. We didn't have a pro sports team at all until sometime in the 90's. But we are the center of the college basketball universe.

And the most revered, exciting day of that season is now upon us: Selection Sunday. There is nothing quite as exciting as sitting in front of the TV with my blank brackets in front of me, waiting to fill in all of the matchups. I know that in this day and age I could come upstairs 14 seconds after the selection show goes off and print them, but there's something satisfactory about filling in the seeds myself, almost as though I had a hand in those teams' fate in the tournament. A lot of the anticipation probably stems from being an N.C. State fan for all those years when we had to wait to find out if we were one of the lucky "bubble teams" to make it. Even knowing that we'll be lucky to play in the NIT tournament this year, watching the selection show is my top priority at 6PMish this evening.

This euphoria of mine will continue throughout this week as I research my teams, apply my "formula", and fill out my brackets. I have won one March Madness pool in my years of doing this: the very first one I entered. I picked teams for reasons such as "my drama teacher is from Louisville, I'll pick them". Or, "Tennessee Williams went to St. Louis University, that's my pick." I can imagine the redneck college guys wondering how I predicted the Weber St upset over UNC. (Easy, as a Wolfpacker, I hate UNC!) I know there will always be at least one 14 seed that upsets a 5, it's just picking the right one that's the challenge. The more I know about basketball, the less successful my brackets have been. Maybe since I've been much more involved with raising a child this season and have no clue about rankings other than Kansas and Kentucky are the top teams and the ACC is even weaker than normal, I might just have a shot this go around.

As Jacob grows up, I hope to include him in this love for basketball. We plan on letting him submit a bracket to our friendly pool. At only 6 months, we'll have to get creative about how he can pick his teams. Other families in our pool do the same, and it's really cute to see their brackets when complete. Of course, less cool is when my bracket is usurped by a 3 year old's.

I'll be trying to avoid that this season! Happy march madness!