We found a furniture close-out dealer here in Fayetteville. One of the owners is also named Mark. Mark and Mark were cut out of the same cloth in more than just name. Mark and Mark both love to deal and to haggle.
Mark and Mark were haggling over a furniture deal one day. I had perused every piece in the store and was ready to go and was getting calls from Tessa who was at home sick. I wandered up to my Mark and said, "Baby, we need to go" and, to the other Mark, "Sorry, I've got a sick child at home". They both just looked at me, incredulously. Finally, the other Mark said, "But we're dealing..." Yes. Of course. Forgive my lapse. Dealing IS more important than sick children.
This is one of our favorite stories and is oft quoted in our household.
But I digress.
Mark and Mark got together one day and, at the end of the dealing, my Mark came home and surprised me with a gorgeous set of contemporary outdoor wicker furniture. He bought the whole set (sofa, coffee table, and two ottomans) for $100. We put it in the yard up by the garage at the top of the driveway. We enjoyed it regularly. We admired it regularly. We enjoyed the satisfaction of having gotten such a bargain on something so rich-looking. Every time we have a garage sale, everyone wants to buy the outdoor furniture. Not a chance.
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| Crappy photo as usual but isn't the furniture pretty? Here it was being used for a staging job. |
Yesterday, I started a major overhaul on the playroom (photos to come eventually on my freesourcefull blog). The playroom has a balcony that overlooks the driveway. The balcony is a great place from which to hurl large items that are headed for the trash. Yesterday I went out on the balcony to hurl said junk into said disposal pattern. I looked down on a blank spot on the yard where our furniture used to be. It was gone.
It took a second to register. Someone actually walked past the sidewalk, past the picket fence, up the driveway, and took a whole truckload of furniture. Probably in broad daylight. They also took two wheels/tires that were extras for Emily's car. THE NERVE! That makes me SO MAD!
Being stolen from feels horrible, doesn't it? I believe that all theives should have things stolen from them so they get for experience the full emotional impact of their selfish actions.
It took me awhile to calm my anger enough to call the police to make a report. They told me to make a report online unless I have any suspect information in which case I should call back. As I write this it occurs to me that a stone masonry company just finished a big patio project at the house next door. There were three or four guys working there every day for a couple of weeks. They all drive trucks. And work hard. And don't make a lot of money. I really do suspect one of them.
As the evening went on and I digested the theft more and more. I started thinking about the meaning of it. I wrote in yesterday's post ("Susan and the Book") about listening to the clues. I decided that having my furniture stolen is a clue. It shows me that my stuff is cool enough that other people want to steal it. Basically: other people want my stuff. Hmmm...
Put Clue #1: the velvet roadrunner paintings I left in the dumpster that I found out later I could have sold (see "Dumpster Rejects" post), with Clue #2: the book Peace and Plenty (see "Susan and the Book" post) which says to start with where you are and with what you have and to listen to the clues, with Clue #3: people want my stuff and that thought I've had lately of doing a flea market booth (which I've done before) or an online Etsy store to sell my finds and creations starts to seem highlighted.
If only I could make a living doing what I love most! If I could find a way to making writing, blogging, creating, and finding cool junk into a paying profession I would be in true heaven!
Susan sent me another book years ago. It was called Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow. I have kept that philosophy in mind while also trying to be prudent in my professions.
For awhile, I was so very fortunate as to get to buy, renovate, and flip houses. I LOVED it. I was doing what I loved and it was reasonably profitable and looking like it was about to snowball in a positive direction. That was about the time about half a dozen aspects of my world converged in a downward spiral to form the perfect storm that took the business out.
Try losing 95% of your income and then see if you can hold it all together and keep what you have. That's where I've been the past few years. That's how this blog came to be. But the lesson is that I was about to build that business up to almost respectabaly profitable while doing what I loved. Maybe I can do it again in another category of "what I love". Maybe I can even do it better. But, if it never brings me a single cent, blogging and dumpster diving and making things is still what I live to do. It's still what I wake up every morning wanting to fill my day with. It still what makes me feel alive.
So I've decided to take the theft of my furniture as a compliment. And an encouragement... And an opportunity for Mark to get to do some more haggling!
I am now on the lookout for Clue #4!
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