Twice in one day!?

I just had to write about my weekend.

My tenant's estate sale was Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I was at work Thursday and Friday, so I never really knew what went down during the sale. So Saturday I get up, make coffee, and I'm lounging around until I have to leave to pick up my mother from the airport (after her semiannual and always too short in my opinion trip to visit my aunts and uncle in Texas). I was in my bedroom on the computer, it's about 8:30, and for some reason the dogs go crazy! They're running around and barking. Then I hear voices. Then I realize these voices are IN MY HOUSE. I had taken the dogs for a walk first thing and didn't lock up when I came back in, and here are 3 old ladies standing in my kitchen. "We're here for the estate sale." They just walked in. Didn't ring the bell, nothing. So I explain that this is a duplex and the estate sale is on the west side of the house. So off they go. I chained my door and went back in my room. Well, no more than 10 minutes later, somehow some OTHER people are standing in my kitchen. I mustn't have latched the door right or something. So then I locked the deadbolt, but only after putting a note on my door telling people where to go. And by where to go I mean to the west, not to hell, which is where I would have LIKED to tell them to go.

My tenant, bless her, lived in the apartment for 17 years. There were boxes upon boxes of things in the basement. Things that had been sitting down there for 17 years never opened, and some of which were boxed up when she moved into the place BEFORE mine...so we're talking close to 30 years old, packed with newspapers from 1979. Her house was a shambles, messy, loaded with junk. She had a milk crate full of pens. Piles and piles of paperback books. Little trinkets and baubles and wall hangings and macrame and doilies and potpourri...it made my head spin.

Don't think I'm a bad landlady, for I can honestly tell you I had no idea she had so much junk in there. I never had any reason to go into her place for the longest time, really. Nothing needed fixing and she'd invite me over now and then, and while everything seemed a bit messy it wasn't out of the ordinary, and I never had a reason to go in her bedroom so I missed all that was in there.

Saturday after the sale the women organizing it were busy clearing out all the stuff that didn't sell.

The way my house is set up, we have a shared front entrance and we each have our own side entrance, I'm east, the unit is west. The driveway for my duplex is on the east, just outside my side door. On the west, outside my tenant's door, is the driveway for the house next door. Throughout the sale the coordinators had been using my neighbor's driveway frequently, sometimes with and sometimes without my neighbor's permission. She's a wonderful woman and was very accomodating.

But, Saturday night was the kicker. It was my neighborhood's trick or treat, a HUGE deal, people really go all out. Plus there are tons of kids in the area. Lots of folks throw parties and have open houses. It's generally a blast. People come from all over so there are always lots of cars parked and general mayhem. The neighbor to the west was throwing a party along with her tenant. It was busy and fun.

But in all this, these estate sale ladies were still hauling stuff to their truck, using my neighbor's driveway as a sidewalk. So my neighbor's son in law pulls into the driveway, and the estate sale lady says "You'll have to move your truck, we need to get stuff down the driveway."

I'm handing out candy and listening to this transpire and I couldn't believe my ears. They were actually asking my neighbor to move cars off her own driveway! When she's having a party! On trick or treat night! And they wouldn't let up!! Eventually the guilt got to her and she had her son in law move his truck, not without a few choice words at least.

I was appalled. It was one of those surreal moments that makes me think "Is there ever a situation where I would act that way?" How could someone possibly be so ballsy!? Why couldn't it wait? Isn't it obvious that this is madness?????

I talked with my neighbor about it yesterday. See I was handing out candy and I heard everything. I told her that I actually felt like apologizing, I was so mortified. Thing is, this has nothing to do with me; I am not involved in the estate sale at all. I'm just counting the days until they get everything the hell out of there.

Seriously, I was just mortified by it all.

When my grandma passed away at 97, her affairs were perfectly in order. She wasn't into "stuff." She had family pictures, and she loved saving greeting cards from her grandkids. But she left very little for us to do. No estate sale necessary, just simple things that meant something to us. That's what I want to happen with me. I'm not saying my tenant did anything wrong...if having stuff made her feel comfortable, then fine. But seeing what I've seen and knowing what I know, the last thing I want is more stuff. I don't NEED stuff. They kept telling me "Go over there, take whatever you want" and I never did. I've got all I need. A car that runs and that I like. A computer. A stereo. A television. Enough furniture. Clothes. Pictures up and some wall hangings that mean something to me. And the only thing in boxes I have downstairs are Christmas and Halloween decorations.

I plan on keeping it that way.