Garage Sale Success

Blog 11-7

Sorry I have not written in my blog in a long time. I am a big slacker. I had a really busy weekend. On Friday night, there was a harvest party for the staff girls. Many people on staff come from parts of the world that experience four distinct seasons and they miss that being on Maui. It ended up being very fun. The hostesses had Fall-scented candles all around and hung Fall-colored leaves from the ceiling. Since the leaves don’t change here in Maui, one of the girls painted green leaves Fall colors. Pretty clever!

They had Fall-themed snacks that were very tasty. My favorite was definitely the Jello jigglers. It had been far too long since I had had any Jello. What a wonderful surprise! The jigglers were in the shape of leaves and pumpkins. We also played some games. A lovely time was had by all. The only downfall was that because of the unholy amount of baked goods I consumed, I was subject to an uneasy stomach for the rest of the night. I really need to learn self-control but those jigglers were so delightful!

Early Saturday morning we had our base-wide garage sale. This was my first big thing as housing head. Gena, my assistant and I worked the whole sale and I had my students work in shifts. The whole thing went awesome! We got rid of so much junk and made $277.70. That is way more than we have made at any other garage sale. Man, I must be a good housing head! Just kidding. There are definitely some differences between Hawaii garage sales and those on the mainland. At home, people start coming as soon as you put up the signs even if it is not officially time yet. Then by 11am, no one is coming anymore. At this garage sale, we had steady customers from 8am to 1pm. We were supposed to end at noon but people kept coming and buying stuff, seemingly oblivious to the fact that we were obviously cleaning up. It was good and I definitely learned some things for next garage sale. At one point, we had a female customer in a dress in our tangerine tree picking tangerines. It was a sight to see. It is crazy that we have so much money in the housing department right now. We have about $300 and this is after we got a bunch of stuff for our guest/speaker house. I am considering using the money to purchase a couple of mattresses. One of my housing girls is currently sleeping on an inflatable air mattress. Her previous mattress had mold inside it and the one before was infested with bed bugs. We could use 50 new mattresses but I doubt we will ever have that much money to spend on mattresses. But if we purchase them a few at a time, it is do-able.

After the garage sale, I took a nap. Then Gena, Sherry and I used our ten-day passes to 24-hour fitness. I worked a lot harder than I expected. I am seriously wanting to join the gym but the start-up costs are high. We’ll see. On Saturday night I worked on a present for Emily and Van’s wedding. I hit a few snags but I hope to remedy the situation. On Sunday we went to church. There was an Indian piano player there as a guest musician. He was good, I suppose, but I could not take my eyes off the power point presentation that accompanied all his songs. It was full of pictures of him with orphans and other pathetic looking people. And there he is with a weird front to back comb-over and cheesy grin. Creepy.

Sherry and Jonathan and I were bored after church. My car’s transmission had been malfunctioning again. Jono discovered that the transmission fluid was bone-dry. Apparently there is some kind of leak. I miss Toyotas. My corolla and I got along great! He refilled the transmission fluid so the car works now, but I feel like I am just constantly waiting for something else to go wrong. Dumb old American cars! We went into town to alleviate our boredom. Then we had a terrible dinner of “whatever is left in the kitchen.” I don’t think it was called that officially but it is definitely what it looked and tasted like.

At night we had a going away party for our base director and his wife. I really didn’t want to go but my conscience would not let me skip. The desserts were good but the whole thing went long. The base director has not really been in the picture for the last six months so I don’t really feel his absence. I have never been on staff when he was in charge. I was only a student. After tearful speeches, I was tired and went home. Thus ends my hectic weekend.