stuff people.

Today, a friend of mine had a yard sale to offload some of her junk before she moved to San Francisco.  I got there late in the day to walk around her mostly empty apartment.

She had cool stuff, which is the kind of praise I give, because I am a stuff person.  I'd never been to her apartment before, but if I had, I would've looked around and thought how I'd like to go to her yard sale.  Luckily, I've learned that it's socially unacceptable to offer to buy someone's things when they are just having you over for a visit. Compliment the stuff first, and if they're looking to part with it, you'll be the first to know.

In her living room, she had a large blueprint on the wall, at least I guess that's what you would call it.  It wasn't blue, but it was a sideview drawing of a building.  Of all the cool things she had left, it was the coolest, and I told her how much I admired it. It did not have a price on it, so I assumed she was keeping it.

This is a terrible picture of a really cool thing.

"Yeah, it's funny how people are really drawn to it.  Everyone that comes over goes to look at it."

"I can see why."

"Do you want it?"

"Yeah, we'll do that."

She helped me take it down from the wall, where it had been attached with clear packing tape.  I rolled it up carefully, and we secured the roll with a necktie from her free pile, since someone had already taken her ball of rubber bands, also from the free pile.  I offered her money for it, but she said she'd only paid fifty cents for it at The Scrap Exchange, a junk store/warehouse in Durham that sold all kinds of random stuff for the purpose of making art out of it. So I offered her fifty cents, but she rolled her eyes at that.

This was the second to last yard sale I went to today, and this item was totally free, but it was the best thing I picked up all day.

My grand ambition is to construct a frame for it, and maybe it'll even end up hanging up over the fireplace. But then people couldn't get up close to it, which would be a terrible shame.

I felt a little bad, because the only things I was getting at her yard sale were free - the blueprint and an atlas from the free pile. Plus the PBR* she offered, which I drank while we shot the breeze for a little while. So I also picked up a artist's articulated model for a buck.

Every pose I put him in, he looks like he's dancing.

More of my friends should have yard sales.

*Note: It was after 1 pm, so it was acceptable to have a beer.**  Also, it was a really nice day, and everyone knows how awesome it is to drink a beer on a nice day. 

** As a related note, this was not the first yard sale where I'd been offered a PBR. It was just the first time I'd accepted, since the previous time, it had been 10:30 AM and I hadn't known the people, though they were obviously quite friendly.