I'm happy to celebrate this "blog-iversary" with a truly Onederful experience -- my first auction! I used to sit through auctions with my parents, begging them to bid on things for me like laser pointers with Batman tips, and Casio keyboards, but I've never been a bidder myself!
Last Thursday, I rolled by a house with lots and lots of furniture in front of it and stopped to ask if they were having a sale. "Saturday at 9 a.m.!" they said. I was excited for days.
I made it to the sale around 9:30, not knowing proper auction etiquette. All I had missed was the auctioning of some tractor and farm equipment. Which I don't need, but definitely wish I did. That dream is for another day.
This is what the auction looked like from one of the shaded corners I kept sneaking into. It was HOT. There were over 200 people there. My number was 195, and I forgot to take a picture of that. But it was crowded!
I walked around pretty awkwardly until I found someone who looked like they knew what they were doing, which just happened to be a very round old man in suspenders and a t-shirt, perched on a stool. He was friendly with a large grin. The numbers were to be gotten in the back shed, I found out.
Later, I ran into our transportation supervisor at the school where I work, and he and I joked for quite a while, after which his friends tried incessantly to get me to bid on the most random things.
I was so nervous for my first bid! I thought you had to hold your number up, but no one seemed to be doing that. It was a lot of ambiguous grunting from somewhere in the crowd, and the auctioneer talked so fast, I barely knew what price people were actually agreeing to. I decided to watch for a long while (about an hour), before bidding on something. We were all gathered around a trailer full of old books. The best had gone, and they were down to taking bids per box of books. When it got to a $1.50 per box, I flashed my number and yelled something that sounded like a muffled mix of "hey" and "here." They wrote me down and I won! The same thing happened for another box of old newspapers. Now, I didn't really want either of those contents, but merely bid for the container. The first was a galvanized bucket with a lid (perfect for compost), and the second was an orchard basket (perfect for apples in the Fall!). I was pleased with that $3.00 spent. Still not sure what to do with those old newspapers, though...
The crowd eventually moved past old lamps, photo albums, paintings, and other random goods to the stuff I really wanted -- the furniture. There were bookcases and rocking chairs and buffet tables galore. I had my eye on two pieces, that I wanted to re-vamp and turn into kitchen islands like the one seen here. Alas, it was not meant to be. I would have only spent around 10 - 20 dollars, and both of them went for near 100. Come to find out, they were made of oak, and definitely worth more than that. I want to practice my re-modeling dreams on something not so valuable! I hate to screw up a beautiful piece of antique furniture.
But I did get something great! I bid on a square coffee table that is about 14 inches tall, and will be perfect for my classroom! I am going to paint the top with chalkboard paint, and it's just the right size for the kids to kneel/sit beside and play with. I can't wait to finish it!
The last thing I bid on was an antique picture frame, and little did I know...I'd be getting a whole box. Seems to be a theme here. Gotta take some junk to get some treasure!
I almost forgot to mention the best part! A bunch of the ladies made lunch and pies, and you could purchase those! I got a piece of delicious apple pie. What a good day. :)
One of the other highlights was the little old men who flirted with me throughout the day. They would nudge me and wink a lot, trying to get me to bid on things I didn't need. Several times, the auctioneer walked over to me and said things like, "You need this don't ya, darlin'?" It made me smile. What a warm and inviting crowd of people at that auction. The pie added to the down-home goodness.
Through all of that, I only spent $7.50 (if you count the pie!). Six dollars on merchandise total.
I feel like that was a job well done. Now I have so many fun projects to work on! And I had the courage to do it by myself.
Some of the things I experience aren't terribly daunting, but I do still feel apprehensive, as with any new situation. For the last year, this blog has been about me feeling comfortable doing things alone, and really enjoying them. Really enjoying the fun I can create for myself, and valuing the time spent with me. We all need a little time with ourselves. I hope at least one person reads this and feels stronger when they move to a new place all alone, and gets a tiny bit of encouragement to try new things -- instead of eating Chinese food and watching movies all day long (still a favorite pastime). I've come from that every day, to actively pursing the joy in the world around me -- in a simply Onederful way.
I've always wanted to go to an auction. I think it would be like a garage sale, only better. :)
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