Day 56 - A good day

Today was a good and productive day.

I woke up feeling quite rested after a much needed 10 hour sleep. My neighbours organized a garage sale and we decided to participate last minute. It felt great to clean out closets and boxes and drawers I rarely open. This was a necessary cleanse and purge, because Craig is officially moving in at the end of the month and will need space for his stuff.

We've lived temporarily together before, like when Craig's apartment had bedbugs last year and when he got back from photographing at the Olympics this winter. But this is different. Now we will share one address. I'm a (recovering) commitment-a-phobe, so normally, I'd be anxious, but I'm not. I'm actually pretty excited. Anyway, I digress.

We made $32.50 at today's garage sale, peddling vintage jewelery, old textbooks, curtains and few other odds and ends. We were pleased, although I'm not sure if $32.50 for a whole day of selling is a good use of time. Regardless, I was happy hanging around the house and chatting with passerbys. At one point, I did some sun salutations on sidewalk for fun, and I think it helped our sales, because we made $18 just while I was practicing!

Tonight, I was at Lululemon Fairview for a community practice of 54 surya namaskar by candle light. It was sweet. The people who came were lovely. I only knew a few of them, but several approached me after and said they regularly read my blog, which is pretty cool, because from this end, it's hard to tell how many people actually follow my posts.



Oh, and regarding my shoulder/clavicle pain I mentioned yesterday, thanks for the suggestions and offerings of massage and reiki. I really appreciate it and will definiately take you up on the offer.

Day 14 - Garage Sale Bonanza + a Walk down Memory Lane

The garage sale is an amazing event: It signifies the official beginning of summer. It's a great way to meet neighbours. It's a wonderful opportunity to support the process of recycling, repairing and reusing. And it's an incredibly nostalgic experience.

Today, Craig and I found ourselves in the epicentre of garage sale mania. We were in Dorval picking up my forgotten computer and happened to see a couple of garage sales side-by-side. We decided to stop and have a look. I bought a $1 Thai cooking book for my friend Julie, who did an exchange in Bangkok. We then turned the corner, only to discover bumper to bumper traffic and a whole street of drive ways selling boxes of basement artifacts. Even though we both agreed that we absolutely cannot afford space for anymore junk, we had to stop and see what this suburban street party was all about. Apparently, this is 31st annual event and more that 40 Dorvalians are participating, which, one of them pointed out, is less than last year.

We were immediately sucked in and spent close to two hours wandering the neighbourhood, stopping at about 24 different drive ways, and I'm not exaggerating. We saw VHS tapes galore, tons of tole painted crafts, numerous empty cages and aquariums of long-deceased pets, and out-of-fad exercise gimmicks (remember the ab roller?). We had so much fun, we complied a list of useless items people were peddling, as well as a list of the coolest stuff we found.

The Top Ten Useless Things found at a Garage Sale
10- A portable NBA basket ball hoop with smashed backboard
9- A beaded necklace decoration thing for wine bottles
8- A 15 piece 1973 Tupperware set
7- A deflated pogo ball
6- A hammock with a big hole in the centre
5- A square pot with a lid that looks like a drawer
4- Three finger hockey gloves... for a Ninja Turtle?
3- An extra small Pet-Saver life jacket in case a yappy little dogs falls off a boat
2- One flip flop
1- AND a 1339 page book of Brian Mulroney's memories (it was clearly unread)


The Top Ten most interesting or coolest things found at a garage sale
10 - The C.S. Lewis Narnia collection
9- Superman comics from 1979
8- A Barbie jumbo jet with accessories sold to the mother of a really excited six-year-old
7- A 1984 Honda C74 motorbike (I don't think this should be on the list, but Craig insisted)
6- 100-year-old screw on skating blades
5- A functioning gramophone from 1905
4- A four sided Lite-Bright cube
3- A lavalamp with CD holder
2- The complete Time Life Library of Photography for $8
1- And an all-in-one TV/Radio/Flashlight/Siren/Lamp thingy with AC adapter, which the vendor pointed out is "ben important pour le camping."

In the end, we were out $17. Craig bought the Time Life Photography series, and I got the aforementioned Thai cook book, a fantastic red folding chair for backbends and a vintage Avon tin, which I plan to use as a pencil case. (The photo below is of me demonstrating how I will use the chair. The seller, who was standing next to Craig, was clearing confused.)

Ok, and now the sun salutations. I managed to convince Craig to do 54 with me this afternoon and then I finished the rest on my own. Here's the yoga photo of the day along with a video we did to demonstrate a new sun salutation.

Surya Namaskar Recipe: Day 14 - The Knuckle Salute