3 days left

Everything that hasn't gone by Sunday will be donated the following weekend. Hmm.... or maybe I should try to sell it during Cinco de Mayo? No!!! It must be gone.

2 things happened this week. One, I stopped by the Black Dog Cafe to get some coffee monday am and saw the Clouds in Water Zen studio brochure. The topic was generosity and how it can lead to increasing expansiveness in life. Which made me reconsider the tack of selling things versus, say giving them away. (as one comment states). I seem to be trying to buy enlightenment or good karma by selling away my attachment. Kind of like sending money to a televangilist. Thus the deadline for sales.

The second thing was selling my bed frame today. A different perspective sleeping on the floor rather than 3 feet off the floor. And it shook what I think it means to be an adult. When I started professing, being an adult was getting a regular paycheck and being able to buy substantial pieces of furniture that did not involve milk crates and unfinished shelves. The bed frame was one of the first pieces I did buy after I bought my house. So does it mean I am no longer an adult if I no longer have substantial pieces of furniture? Or is being an adult doing the difficult and sometimes tedious tasks that keep you a part of society?

And my bff called me bff, which made me smile and laugh at the same time. Especially because he's a hetero male and that is not common language for hetero males. Or gay males, either.

Art Crawl First Day

81 yesterday and I was inside all day long! That is truly a MN thing to say. Living someplace where it is nice all the time, there isn't that impetus to go out and enjoy a nice one.

Quite a few things sold yesterday. Still a lot left. It was nice to see a few things, like a toy stable, got to a girl who quite simply fell in love with it at first sight. She was speechless when I let it go for less than the asking price.

Art Crawl and Estate sale

This weekend is the big St Paul art crawl. Artists's lofts and co-op buildings are being opened for browsers and purchasers to check things out. It is a lot of fun. And since I am cat sitting for someone and they have given me permission, I am also selling some smaller things this weekend. Come on by Sat pm and Sun. Tilsner Bldg on Broadway.

Wacky Morning Shows

Sitting at my laptop, checking the news and email, and I get a call from some crazy morning crew in Chicago. I really hate these shows. Generally, they are not funny, they try too hard, and they are often mean. They asked for an interview. I hesitated. Couldn't say no at that point. Agreed. Proceeded to be treated as if I was an idiot and became more defensive than I would like. Moral: no spontaneous interviews. No local radio spots.
On top of the google news reports of the sale being a "flop" and my "failing" to sell everything on ebay. On top of the voracious feeding frenzy with the VT shooter. People and media glory in failings and the macabre. Nothing new, Don Henley's Dirty Laundry, right? It's just wild, how the story first was so popular because it connected with people's interest in the slightly odd and the feeling that possessions control people. Now it seems to be popular because it shows one can't escape possessions and who knows what. It certainly isn't personal. Not like people in India know me and think that justice has been served. So what is it?
I know that I would still have rather gone through the media carnivale and experienced it, worked it, known what it is like to be interviewed live and taped in video and audio, than never have done it. It's harder to push forward than it is to pull back. Ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

Things are flying out of the apt!

While the AP wire reports the auction problems...

Coffee table, Restoration Hardware patio chairs--both gone.

Bedframe, futon and desk--will likely be gone before the weekend.

Bidding is active on items on ebay, new items include:

1. More clothes added to the Professional Women's clothing
2. Breyer Horse Models
3. 8 Track tapes
4. 4 Botanical prints in great gold frames
5. tealight candleholders
6. mystery box of tschoshkes
7. refrigerator magnets from around the world~

Everything Perry Owns, now in bite-size!

On Craigslist Minneapolis:

• Bertoia diamond chair
• filing cabinet
• desk
• dresser
• overstuffed chair and ottoman

On ebay (look under rhetorica61):

• china collectibles
• Garrison Keillor poster
• Tonka toy!
• breadmaker
• women's professional clothing

Auction over, but the fun has just begun!

Monday morning quarterbacking can be pointless at times. Not when you are the coach. Things I learned relisting the auction on ebay: I should have gone to the media immediately and had a regular auction or posted on craigslist. Not happy with ebay at all.

So in order to put into practice what I learned, I am putting items on craigslist minneapolis and will probably put them here. No bidding, price fixe or make an offer. The Bertoia Diamond chair is already on Craigslist.

4 hours left

Woke up to a beautiful spring morning--singing birds, sunshine, smell of earth. Some of my favorite things. Which is fantastic! Especially since the auction ends today and, so far, the reserve has not been met.
Is it more troubling to think of the things not leaving or having to pack them up and actually bid them adieu?
I still plan on selling--so what would be another good way to do it if this doesn't go? Someone mentioned calling an auction house, who would then give a price they would pay for everything (and they would then resell). I thought of that earlier. Maybe that's the way to go. Or simply Craigslist. I am loathe to use ebay again. They ticked me off. And I am still angry about it, which is pointless since it won't change what happened. I would donate but it would be more final to sell rather than donate. More fitting, somehow.

1. listing separately on ebay or craigslist
2. calling auctioneer
3. garage sale

Ideas?

LA Times Article

What an incredible experience it is throwing myself into the moshpit of the media. Ok, maybe not a moshpit. Not even a sale at Filene's Basement. There's been some jostling.

LA Times reporter PJ Puffstutter interviewed me yesterday by phone. She was supposed to fly out--spring blizzard canceled that. The article hit the web last night and there have been a number of readers from CA who are asking me why I am doing this in the way I am.

1. I am not loco. A number of things came together this winter/spring that lead me to realize my possessions were keeping me where I was and preventing me from moving forward. A combination of Buddhist thought on attachment, reading The Pathfinder and having the idea of trading comfort for vitality, and Mama Gena's philosophy on not waiting. Because the things I had from a great and varied past kept me from being able to look forward into the future.
2. I am not suicidal. Certainly the giving away/disposing of one's property is a red flag that someone has suicidal ideation (and if that is the case I highly recommend anyone feeling that way to a number of resources, posted at the margin), however to do so on ebay would be the most twisted of cries for help.
3. My family does not think of me as crazy. Or at least not because of this decision. At least they haven't told me so nor has someone been appointed my guardian. Maybe they do, who knows? People who know me seem to fall onto either end of a spectrum: those who are completely unsurprised and then those who are stunned. If I was better at html and computer graphics I could make a nice little chart or something.
4. Money is one reason for doing this, but it is not the only thing. I started selling smaller lots, individual items that I felt could bring more money about 2 months ago. It was a long, tedious process with way too many trips to my fantastic neighborhood Post Offices (those guys truly rock!). I thought this would be easier although less financially rewarding. I have sold some things on craigslist, but decided for something of this scope having to respond to emails and set up times to show the items would also be inconvenient. Silly me, I am spending as much time doing this. But craigslist does kick booty.

Keep the buzz

I added the books from half.com onto the ebay auction. Some people have asked about the game system, I have left those on half.com. Also the cds.
Some great books, including a couple of signed copies.

Tired after a long night of process serving, driving in the slushy, icy snow and 2 national interviews.

Day 2 of revised auction

Snowing here. Pretty snow, it would have been nice to have a little more of this in, say, winter, rather than spring, but oh well.

Bidding is up to $500+. Thanks to all who are still interested! Learning a lot about focus, goals, and adaptability. Love it.

Here's the story

I truly hope the auction can recover from the mix-up and the relist. At least now you can search the ebay page and find it.

This is what happened:
Yesterday a couple of ebayers emailed me that offering partial proceeds to a charity without first listing the auction as a charity auction violates ebay policy and they might remove it. This concerned me, so I spent quite a bit of time looking into ways to change the listing and either adding the non-profit aspect or removing it from the posting. Well once there are bids you can add to an ebay listing but you cannot delete. So I was out of luck and was hoping the beneficient ebay gods would overlook this. They didn't. I got a call this am from ebay saying I had to change the listing or it would be removed. I called the number given 2 times, neither time could I get through to a living breathing human and neither one of my messages were returned. I was chatting with the live chat person, who was helpful, and it was in the middle of this discussion that the listing was removed. Gone. No trace. All the bids gone. No trace. Oh the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth! Not really, some choice cuss words and some scathing emails to my sister. I spent the next 4 hours trying to register to be able to do a non-profit charity auction and relist the item. No luck. Ebay would not recognize me as having registered. I looked into switching the auction to Yahoo! auctions. They could not give me a human being to talk to to make sure I followed the proper procedure [does nobody want this free publicity?]. Back to ebay. Screw the charity option on the auction. Know in my heart I will follow through-but-I-can't-be-anymore-specific-or-the-auction-might-get-pulled-again. Relist. Thankfully many people were still buzzing and emailing me about where the previous auction was so I could redirect. In the few hours it has been back up we have over $100 bid. Numerous hits.

I'm sure we have all worked and worked on something, only to have it disappear. For me it was a significant chunk of my dissertation. For a friend it was having her only copies of her masters thesis stolen out of her car. For my ancestors in South Dakota it was a big tornado. In the grand scheme of things, 2325 virtual dollars is a mere bump in the road; nothing compared to Darfur, the civil war in Congo, the loss of your entire peach crop, the slander of your good name by Imus. A life full of such little setbacks would be a life of ease. Just like the 6 million dollar man, we can rebuild it, we have the technology!

I sincerely apologize for the confusion and for those who have been frustrated by the dancing numbers. I did everything in my control to work with ebay to prevent the problem once it was brought to my attention, and I continue to work with them to make this auction a success.

Here is a link with some information about Stephen's service:
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/apr/06/honoring-stephen-kowalczyk/

Oy vey!

So, if someone from beyond the confines of this snowy state wishes to bid and wants to come pick up my fabulous stuff, yeah! If someone wants me to drive it to them on their dime, I'm happy to travel (as long as I have a return plane ticket). I will even travel by tramp steamer to somewhere across the seas (if they have tramp steamers and I again have a return plane ticket).

Let me know!!

Happy happy fun fun thoughts to everyone who has wished me well. And for those who have laughed--you are laughing with me, not at me.

Link to ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320102331168

Quickie auction--all the fun in half the time!

All roads lead to Rome.
This is it, the auction you have heard about on the AP wires and, if you are lucky, the papers in China.
Same conditions as before, shorter time period. I have no intent nor am I doing this to violate ebay's policies on anything.

Buddha/Jesus/God/Allah/Thor/Zeus knows and loves the people who bid before. The trickster coyote is having fun with me today and I love the lessons I am learning because of him.

Seriously, my intent is the same, to rid myself of possessions which have kept me looking backward. Bonus, I can find some way to honor Stephen Kowalczyk and other military personnel from around the globe who have and are risking their hides in Iraq (and elsewhere).

That's it. Please bid. While you can.