This weekend

Not as much fun as the last...probably.

A garage sale in another town; which was on again, off again for the last two weeks. I'm helping, and at first was glad to have a chance to get rid of all the crap I've been accumulating. When the person called (who shall remain unnamed due to request), I had just decided to take all my bags of too large clothes to the thrift store that morning. Great timing, I thought.

Anyway, my mother is also involved in this garage sale. She at first didn't want to do it this weekend, she needed more time to get her things together for it, but we brought her around to it. Then, she bought a ticket for the Amtrak, not thinking that since I was going too, I would drive her. We then had quite a discussion about how she could get a refund. She was adamant that she couldn't get a refund, and that she would have to use the ticket. Tried to get her to see that yes, she could get her money back, and that going with me would be better, and finally, I gave up. Stupid thing to actually have a disagreement about...

Then the wiffle-waffling began. Should we or shouldn't we? Then the ad didn't get in the paper as planned. Then, a couple of days ago, this conversation:

"Hi honey. I'm just called about Friday. What time are you going to pick me up?" (she had decided sometime in the interim, that going with me was yes, a better idea.)

"Hi Mom. What time were you thinking?"

"Oh, you're driving, you tell me."

"Okay, I'm thinking about six?"

Long pause...

"Uh...um...that's very late."

"Don't you work until five?"

"No, I got off early that day because I was going to take the train."

"Well, what time were you thinking I'd pick you up?" I'm annoyed already at this point.

"I was thinking three or four. We have to get there, and take care of lots of things Friday night."

See, she's going to get off work, go home, and wait for me. Really tough.

I guess she forgot I have a JOB. One in which I get four 4-minute breaks and one 33-minute lunch between 8 and 2:30. One in which grades are due by Monday for progress reports. One which I normally don't leave until five or six at night most days. Also, that I still needed to take everything out of my car which was in it to make room for all my crap and all her crap that is going to the garage sale. Oh yeah, and that I would need to take the Wonder dog to my friend's house before I go to mom's house.

An argument ensued. Mother called person-who-will-not-be-named, and that person called me and suggested cancelling the sale.

This after I'd gone out to my car, to clean it out early, and had accidently poked a hole into a can of soda that in a bag of papers and such, thereby soaking through my tax papers from 2006 and 2005, ruining my copy of The House of the Scorpion, and various other mishaps.

I said some foul words.

Even though I could go on and on, suffice it to say that the garage sale is back on. Wednesday night I went to my friend's house and brought Charlie's crate over early, because it's so bulky. Then, last night I packed up my car with my stuff, then to my mother's to pack up her stuff. This is the longest build up to a garage sale in the world. You'd think it was a matter of life or death.


So, perhaps because I'm so annoyed now, everything will run smoothly, and I'll make lots of cash, and there will be all kinds of love this Mother's day.

Peace (I hope).