Other People’s Stuff

Nope, Rainman still hasn’t come to get his stuff. Why does this shit keep happening to me? Why is it that everyone that comes to stay here stays for about a month, then leaves me with a pile of crap I have to get rid of?  And why can’t people come and stay here for a month and then leave me crap when it’s GOOD crap – crap that I might be happy to have?

Why can’t somebody come and stay for a month and then leave behind like a pile of fucking money or something? Or a pile of fabric? Or a pile of sewing patterns? Or a pile of books? You know, things that I might say “Cool! Hope they don’t come back and get this crap!”

No, I get people who leave behind smelly fucking socks and old mattresses and recliners that I think are really not recliners but van seats, and dirty heroin needles.

Rainman did call Monday night, and told Paul that he was coming on Tuesday to get his crap. Paul told him “Good, come and get it, because pretty soon I’m going to start charging you storage fees.” At this point Rainman said “Well, you’ll need to talk to Leonard.” And apparently went off to find Leonard (or maybe it was Harold, I can’t remember what name he said.), and Paul hung up. Paul said “Fuck him – if he can’t do his own talking. He’s so gung ho on talking on the phone – let him fucking talk.”

But Rainman never did come on Tuesday to get his crap. And we really can’t charge him storage fees – I mean, he’s two days into storage and even at $1.00 a day, he’s well over what his shit is worth. I think the next time someone stays with us (as if *that* will ever happen again – HA!) I’m going to examine the person’s stuff as they move in and charge them a “dump fee deposit” for whatever amount I think their stuff will cost me to have hauled the fuck away.

And you just know that if the garbage man gets a whiff of Rainman’s socks he’s going to charge me extra for “Hazardous Waste Disposal”.

But, in other news, I started on a new sewing project. This is one of those “quick – finish in a day or so” projects. Just to get some instant gratification after the “2 weeks of Hell” Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls” project. I didn’t want to start something else that was going to take forever to finish. So, I’m making a little ruffled top and Capri pants for my friend’s little girl. Same little girl I made the purple twirly dress for.

I found a bunch of wild and crazy prints on the clearance rack at Joann’s. I love the clearance rack at Joann’s. One of my favorite places to shop for fabrics. These were all $1.00 a yard, and I waited until the end of the month last month to buy them, because at the end of the month Joann’s usually has that “50% off all Clearance fabrics”, sale, so then they were only 50 cents a yard. Can’t beat that with a stick! So I bought all they had of these wild and crazy prints. Makes you kind of think of a bad acid trip, don’t they?

So the little Capri set I’m making has a top that has a double layer of ruffles, and the Capri’s have a ruffle on the bottom. That’s where I ran in to problems. Because I wanted to incorporate several of these fabrics in the set, but I’m just not good at “coordinating”. I can’t tell “what looks good together”. I generally leave that to Paul – he’s the one with the eye for “coordinating” and “decorating”. But he took one look at these fabrics and said “Those don’t go together! You can’t mix patterns and stripes!”

So, I called the little girl’s mom and said “I’m emailing you a pic of some fabrics – coordinate these for me” and she did. Quite well, too. The minute she said how to put them together, I could see she was right, but I just can’t do it on my own.

So, the bodice of the top will be the stripe – and the Capri’s will be the same stripe. The first ruffle will be the flowers on orange, the bottom ruffle will be the circles, and the ruffle on the pants will be the flowers on orange.

And the top is almost done. I love “instant gratification” projects.

In *Other* news, I was looking through the “Free Trader” and saw an ad that said “Two totes full of fabric – accessories.”. There was no price, so just for shits and grins, I called the phone number listed. The guy that answered said “Yeah, I still have the fabric” and I said “What *kind* of fabric?” And he just said “Fabric – and some sewing stuff – looks like thread and stuff.” So I asked him how much he wanted for the fabric and he said “$10.00/”. Which kind of made it worth my while to go see what he had – especially since he only lives about 3 blocks from my house. Paul wasn’t home, so I called the old lady across the street and she said she’d bring me over there.

So, we went over and sure as shit, he had 2 HUGE Rubbermaid totes full of fabrics – mostly flannels, cottons, and a *lot* of upholstery fabric – some still on the round bolts. And he also had one of those “under the bed” plastic storage things full of thread, bobbins, snaps, hooks and eyes, tape measures, pins and needles, buttons, scissors, elastics, laces and trims. Definitely worth $10.00. He had to go into the house to get the toes, and as he was going in he says to us “The sewing machine is over there.”

Now, I didn’t even know he had a sewing machine. And I really wasn’t there for the machine – just the fabric. Since the front yard where we were standing was set up for what looked like the remnants of a garage sale, I looked to where he was pointing and didn’t see a sewing machine – I was expecting it to be on one of the 4 or 5 long tables full of dishes and regular garage sale stuff. He says “No – Over there by the tree.” And sure enough, there was a sewing machine in a cabinet.

I looked at my neighbor and said “Do you want a sewing machine?” And she said “No.” I said I didn’t either, and that I really didn’t think it would fit in the back of the car, anyway. I walked over to the cabinet, and lifted the (heavy) machine to the top of the cabinet, and noticed that it looked like quite a heavy duty or industrial machine, which wouldn’t be bad to have around, really. Although I definitely don’t have room for another sewing machine – especially a cabinet one.

The guy came back out with the huge totes full of fabric, and the under the bed plastic thing full of accessories, and I asked how much the sewing machine was. He said “It’s $10 for everything, including the sewing machine.” My neighbor said “Well, you have to take the machine – you can sell it for more than that.” So I told the guy, “Well, if you can fit it into the car, I’ll take it.”

He must have been *really* anxious to get rid of the machine, because he fit it in the trunk and even carried the totes to the car and put them in the back seat for us. Which personally, I wouldn’t even have done for $10.

Luckily by the time we got back to the house Paul was home to get the machine out of the trunk and to carry the totes inside for me. Although he was none too pleased that I had added a *Sixth* sewing machine to my collection. He asked “Where the hell are you going to put this? You don’t have any room for it, you know.”

I told him to stop inviting people to live with us who leave their fucking crap behind and I’d *have* room.

That shut him up.