The Longest Day

Saturday was the longest day of my life -- so long it lasted until Monday morning.

YSA PART 1:

I woke at 6AM and rallied the day's troops, three incoming 6th graders who were asleep on the couch in my basement. Word of the great fun and mind-blowing bargains of the YSA has reached the ten year old crowd. My son Donny and his friends Bobby and Devin were ready to roll. First stop: coffee, cash, donuts, and Bug Juice, which Devin reports is very disgusting in its grape form.

I think maybe I am a ten year old boy in an adult woman's body (like my own, private Freaky Friday or something?) because I had FUN with these guys. They think farts are funny, as do I. They let the class B swear words fly (these would be words like crap, ass, damn, hell -- not the big class A offensive words [which I can't even type here because they would be so offensive to the YSA readership!], just the less offensive ones that make any sentence funnier.)

I should mention that Devin had a crisp twenty budgeted for the day's sales. I think his mom gave it to him.

On to the sales. Focus, People.

First stop, a three-sale block of Brittany Lane in Belleville. Right away my eagle eye honed in on this. (I gasped as if I were having a heart attack but then remembered how Laura tells me to use my poker face at sales to disguise my desperation for the product in question, thereby increasing my bargaining leverage.)

This is the mother load of Littlest Pet Shop toys. JoJo colects them and I support her habit because they are so freakin' cute. (Freakin' is a class B swear, don't you think?) The asking price for this LPS hotel and undisclosed number of pets was $30. I offered $20. Their previous owner settled at $25. I snapped it up and did the skeedaddle out of that driveway because I knew I had just scored big and didn't want the lady to change her mind and chase me down the street screaming, "Wait! Wait! That wasn't enough!!" (This has never actually happened to us but I live in fear of it.)

At Target you can buy an LPS for $3 if it has only a few little pieces of plastic accessories. You could pay $6 if there are bigger plastic accessories or two pets in the pack. On Ebay you can buy them used for about 2 bucks each.

In the car I made Donny count the pets. Seventy-seven Littlest Pet Shop pets and their hotel for $25! That constitutes a Find, People. Feel free to congratulate me in the comments section.

Further down the street Devin encountered the chair of his dreams. It was big and soft and comfy. It did not smell noticeably of cat or smoke. It had no bodily fluid stains on its surface. He wanted this chair badly, and after a quick call to his mother for permission to bring a large piece of furniture into the house (my idea) he knew he had to have it. The asking price was $15. Now Devin had that crisp twenty in his pocket so he could have paid the asking price but he knew it was early and there would be more treasure around every corner. "How many more sales are we going to, Nancy?" "About a hundred, Devin." "Well, crap, I don't want to spend all my money on this." He offered ten. The owner brought him up to $14. Devin deftly countered with $13. Sold! His enthusiasm was uncontainable. The boys lugged that chair into the Van-O-Dreams and Devin rode unrestrained in the papasan for the rest of our journey.

Also at the papasan sale, I noticed this item:

I thought it was a cool letter O which I could hang on the wall in Oscar's room. But when I picked it up I felt it was soft and squishy. "What is this?" I asked the proprietess. "Ummm... after I had my baby my husband went to Walgreens and bought me that so I could sit down."

Oh. I see.

Then the boys noticed me and the interesting yellow O. "What is that, Nancy?" asked Devin. "I'll tell you when we get in the van."

So I explained the need for the pillow to three ten year old boys. All they could do was giggle and say "Crap, that's gross." Hell, yes, boys. It is damn gross.

On to North Charles Street! It is a three block stretch where good things happen to yardsalers. It is a Bermuda Triangle of good shopping. It was North Charles Street where we met Shirley, where we bought the ammunition case bookshelf, and where I scored some high art for a dollar. This time we found a disco ball, at least 18 inches in diameter, with a working rotation device and a plug, not just a lame battery compartment. This is the king of disco balls. Devin wanted it but it was ten dollars. There was much discussion about the inherent value of disco balls. All present agreed that disco balls make life more fun. Devin disclosed that he had only seven dollars left. There was thoughtful silence. The owner offered it for five. Sold! "That's the best damn disco ball, ever!" said Donny. As we drove away, the sunlight scattered into thousands of tiny twinkles on the van ceiling and we were content.

Next stop, Belleville East High School where the dance team was holding a fundraiser. Good stuff, good music. I think Donny spent a dollar on some playground balls which we played with all weekend. Bobby found a slushee maker. Devin spent one of his two remaining dollars on some electronic equipment. I bought a belt. But about this time I started feeling like I would rather have been running than shopping. It wasn't scorching hot yet, there was a perfect breeze in the air, lots of other runners were out on the street, and I felt the urge to join them. So we wrapped up our yardsale adventure and headed home early.

YSA PART 2:

After a short run which was much more enjoyable in theory than it was in reality, we packed for our overnight in Oswego. My sister (who is technically my ex-stepsister because her dad and my mom were married but are now divorced, but at some point you take responsibility for your own relationships and so we just say "sister") lives in Oswego. Oswego is a town in northern Illinois which was originally a vast, open prairie but now has lots and lots of new subdivisions. Laura and I usually scoff at the vinyl houses and prominent garages of new developments, but Oswego has an endearing quality I don't often feel from similar places. Theyare well-planned neighborhoods with bike trails and schools integrated into the communities. There is a lovely, old main street from back when Oswego was part of the Oregon Trail or something. Most of all, Oswego is home to Heather, Anthony, and their kids, the most geographically proximal of all our relatives. And Oswego was holding their annual Prairie Fest!

Prairie Fest is part carnival, part flea market. In an effort to stay on topic I will discuss the flea market, because, while it is not an actual yardsale, it was an unconventional shopping venue offering some unusual products. Such as this lawn goose and her wardrobe:

Seriously? A lawn goose? The gnome is out of fashion or something? Good grief.

Then we saw this display of purses and totes.

My heart did a little skip-a-dee-do-da because I love bags! It is some genetic predisposition I inherited from my mother. These bags are sold through the home-party circuit under the brand "Thirty-One". The bags are affordably priced and wicked cute. My new friend Lindsay lives in Springfield and will travel all over the darn state to bring you and your friends the Thirty-One catalog! After 10 minutes with her, both Heather and I were ready to sign up to become independent sales consultants!

I'm still on the fence about signing up... trust me, if I do you YSA followers will be the first to know!

Any Fest worth its salt has some delicious fest-food, right? Guess what?! Taquitos! Five dollars for three which is not that far off from our standard QT-2-for-2-dollars deal.

Here is the taquito seller and her mother who generously listened to my enthusiastic schpiel (is this a real word?) about yardsaleadventures, QT, and the purse-party concept. I think they might be my first purse-party customers!

So after the kids rode the carnival rides and ate crappy food, we headed home to regroup. We propped all 8 cousins in front of the TV with the entire set of Harry Potter movies, fluffed our hair, and headed back to Prairie Fest for...

YSA PART 3:

The headliner for Saturday night at Prairie Fest was Eddie Money, who we all agreed was super drunk but still rockin' the house. We brought lawn chairs and settled in for the perfect summer night. I hope you have all had this summertime experience: the sky is clear, the breeze is warm, you are surrounded by people you love, every face is smiling, and the beer tent is only 50 feet away.

And as this is a yardsale blog, not a movie called The Hangover, I will only post a few choice pictures from the evening, pictures of my new best friends, their favorite bar, and the Oswego Chief of Police. Enough said.

It was truly the longest day of my life. See you next week after another yardsale adventure! Until then, I leave you with the best bumper sticker of the day: