Archive for the ‘Work Weirdness’ Category

Whew.

I’m just realizing the whole Christmas thing is over already. Thankfully. Sadly.

Okay, there’s still New Year’s to get through, and that’s a whole other kettle of fish, but the bulk of it is gone. Charlie and I both stayed home this year, no December travelling for the first time, and there were lists and lists of things we wanted to do, some of which we got to, some we didn’t. (I really really really will get myself over to the concerts in St. Louis Cathedral and/or the caroling next year. Really truly.)

It all culminated in an Orphan’s Christmas Eve feast- a dinner party for wonderful friends whose families are also miles away. Charlie took the theme to heart and went into full on Dickens mode, making a scrumpcious goose with fruit stuffing and suchlike (tho no figgy pudding, thankfully). I intended to take pics of the goose before it got gobbled, but I was nicely buzzed on wine and company, so there ya go.

After Christmas Day’s Annual Low Key Open House thrown by our wonderful neighbors and a day of recovery we went and saw some of the holiday stuff Downtown and crossed off a few more “we have to get to”s around town.

It was meant to end in a lovely dinner at Antoine’s Hermes bar, but that was packed. We scaled down to Arnaud’s bistro, Remoulade, but they were closing by the time we got there. So dinner, for those brave of us to accept the mission, was an honest-to-god Lucky Dog with the works.

Ug:

Note there are only boys in that picture. The ladies wisely took a pass.

So that’s that. Christmas 2009 in the bag, for better or worse. Lots of all the stuff you’re supposed to have, and little of the stuff everybody hates. And yet I find myself in a bit of a post-holiday slump. This was the first year in a long time I really participated and wasn’t just a bah-humbug, largely because the business is gone, I think. I used to have to shop constantly, so more holiday buying just made me nuts, and Christmas also started the roller coaster of Carnival season, so to say I was distracted is an understatement.

I guess this is the first real event that’s made me acutely aware of the business’ loss on a day-to-day, nuts and bolts level. Bittersweet, as always. I’m very happy to not be pouring over catalogs, scrying for clues as to what kind of season it’s going to be, laying in supplies, and making even more of a mess than I do usually. Mostly I’m very happy about it all.

Sometimes I just have to remind myself of that.

These past weeks have been a bit insane, even by the rather elastic standards of sanity in my house.

The dozens of boxes of leftover inventory were hauled out of storage, organized, thousands of items individually priced and set up for a massive garage sale (actually held in our front parlors) that spanned 2 weekends. Friends were enlisted/enslaved, Charlie’s patience sorely tested (but rewarded- with some of the proceeds I bought him a much drooled over Kindle for his b-day) and the wine (not to mention whine) flowed.

The dogs were confused. Well, Sammy was anyway- Bruiser took the opportunity to go dumpster diving in bags and boxes to find anything stuffed to steal and destroy, and the bigger the better:

The sale itself was fun, especially since we were primarily an online business- I never got to see people playing with the stuff we sold, and that was really nice. We sold a little over half- not bad, considering that a high percentage of the stock was out of season Mardi Gras decorations.

I donated what was left to charity; it was just picked up a few hours ago. Mostly I’m glad to see it go… all those boxes took up as much emotional/mental space as physical, and closure (trite tho it may be) is a very good thing.

But…well. You know.

Anyway.

Next?

For months now I’ve been emptying out cabinets, closets, the pantry- anything which has held stuff for the store. And by ‘anything’ I really mean ‘everything.’ Every nook and cranny had, if not actual merchandise, shipping stuff, boxes, peanuts, catalogs- something business related.

I was already over it, really. I’d started out going through things very carefully, but after a while I just started putting piles and piles ‘o crap on the curb- and some of it was actual stuff with worth (slightly damaged merch, many plastic containers etc), and some was literally garbage. The most worthless thing that got put out was actually meant for the trashcan, but I forgot to toss it. It was a package of 4 light bulbs that had gotten squashed- through the clear plastic packaging you could see it was just a bunch of broken glass.

Somebody took it anyway. Somebody took everything. Every. Single. Thing. All in all, I guess there were several hundred items, from 8ft metal shelving units down to teeny tiny pouches of Mardi Gras confetti, but there were a couple of oddball items people got really excited about.

The plastic hand I used to stage some of the product photos? There was a fight over it. Seriously. Yelling, in front of the house about who saw it first until one of them just snatched it and took off.

And as happy as I was that this stuff was going to get some kind of a second chance at life, that maybe it’d be used by someone else (though I’m not sure what sort of edification the crackhead found in “Quickbooks: The Official Guide” ), I started to get aggravated when random strangers began stopping me as I went in the house, wanting to know when I’d be putting more stuff out. Like, specifically- what time? And was there going to be anything “good?”

The chick who lost out on the hand was particularly grating. She seemed to think the hand had a mate somewhere inside I was just holding out on her. She came back for days afterward and kept asking me if I was sure I didn’t have another one.

So just as I got to the point of feeling like no good deed goes unpunished, this appeared on my doorstep:

Okay, it’s filthy – but it’s brand new- the tag’s still on the collar! And, well, it’s a little something, isn’t it? A little Karmic prize in return for my neighborhood donation? Someone came along, found something useful on the curb, and like a little Sarcasm Fairy left this on my stoop before flitting away into the night, taking with him, oh…I don’t know. Maybe the gross of condoms that was out there that night? Or maybe it was the world’s ugliest doll?

Whatever it was, I hope he was happy with the trade. I know I am.