Auction

I just got in from being at our school’s auction for the past eight hours.   I had sneakers (I love that old term for athletic shoes) but I spent much of the time in a dress and heels and now my feet are angry at me.   I can run a marathon and my feet never bother me, but put me in heels and the change of angle, additional balance needs and pressure on toes from being force forward due to angle and my feet complain.

I didn’t start this post to write about my feet though.   Sometimes this happens—I start a blog post, planning on writing about one mundane thing that happened in my day and I get distracted by a side issue or nuance of the story and wander into the land of digression.

Where was I?  Oh, yes, about the auction.   We’ve been planing it since close to the start of the school year.   The group on the committee was small but we were able to bring in more people who then brought in more people and our committee ended up at close to fifteen people, all who were interested in helping and willing to take on sections of the auction and run autonomously.

Usually just before the auction things felt frantic as we scrambled to get it all done and finalized in time.   This year our final meeting before tonight was more to make sure we didn’t miss anything and confirm our final plan.

I walked into the space a few hours after setup began and I was wowed by the transformation of the space.   We hosted the event at an art studio that had old wood floors and a warm, welcoming yet open feel.   We finished the set up, I got into my heels and we started to welcome the guests.

I ate a lot of the catered food and drank water and watched the other people drink wine, beer and a special cocktail one of the staff, who is a bartender on the weekends, made especially for the event.    The social hour was so successful it was hard to get people into the live auction area, but we got started eventually.  

We raised a lot of money, thanks to some very generous donations from our families (beach home rentals, authentic cultural dinners, tickets to sports games, etc.)   As soon as cleanup began I got back into my sneakers and start the cleanup.  

One of the things we offered this year was a mystery box tower.  There were thirty boxes wrapped in different papers.   You could purchase one box for $50  Inside each box was something, like a gift certificate, free movie tickets or a handmade child’s upon.  One of the boxes contained a $500 Apple store gift card.    At the end of the evening people got the box number they signed up for.  I told them to ask my husband when he got in and I was sure he’d sign up.   Then, on second thought, I told them I’d sign up for number thirteen, my husband’s favorite number.

As I was starting cleanup, Liz, the person who had organized the mystery boxes came over to me and said, “did you hear?”   I thought she was talking about the auction totals for the night and said I hadn’t.   She said, “you won the mystery box.  It was number thirteen.”

I told my husband and he decided since it was his number, I should let him have it.

The Big Boy Update:   My son was playing with some of the boys (Sophomors in high school) that were visiting my neighbor’s son tonight.   He was having fun playing with them, but, his sister (and our sitter for the night) told me, “he has a thing about butts.”   I told her it was a popular topic at this age.   She said he was hitting people on the butt, especially her, and then sometimes in the front.    I told her I would have a talk with him and let him know we don’t touch people in those areas because they are private.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was invited next door to watch a movie in their new movie room.   I’m not sure how she’s sitting proximity-wise in front of their large projection screen, but she must be enjoying it because she didn’t come home.