Feb 25th

I had a bit of a post from the 9th of Feb so I will continue with the first weekend in Feb - On Saturday  the 6th I had my first garage sale. It was located in the dojo/garage- has a hallway going to the garage but we opened up the main doors which I have not done since June of 2005 and it worked out really well to have stuff inside and outside and down the hall and in the rooms. (We have a lot of stuff)- What a day - I am not a garage sale person- it is so much work and everyone wants to get a deal so they proceed to tell you how bad everything is and how it is not worth what you are asking or they ask what else do you have and on and on AND by the end of the day I was cold even though it was in the high 40's that day. Renae and I had dinner at the Windbreak Café that night -Chicken Fried steak and mashed potatoes ( I thought we deserved a good meal after that day) - Sunday I spend cleaning the kitchen and moving things around but by 5pm I was wiped out -I left to come back to LA that night. I was back up in Alaska on the or morning of the 12th- it was kind of a funny story- I got to the house about 5 am. I was soooo tired and of course it is pitch black outside and most of the outside lights were out so I got to the front door and put in the code but I could not get the handle to turn because it had a lock box on it. I tried it a few more times and could not open it. By now I am cold, tired, upset and not functioning on all levels  and I need a few hours of sleep so I went to the Fred Meyers parking lot in Wasilla and parked in the middle by the light- locked the doors- put my seat back (thankfully I had a  pillow and blanket in the car from flying) and went to sleep for 2 hours (well off and on sleep because I had to start the car every 20 min or so to keep it warm) then back to the house where after some sleep, coffee and hash browns I realized that the front door code was not the only way into the house so I went back and  used my house key on my key chain and opened up the side door and I was in the house. !!Now the realtor  had a 9 am appt and 11 and 1 pm to show the house and they would rather I not be there so I was able to sneak back in for half hours at a time for a quick nap/shower/ ect. during the day. I also went to see a movie all before 3:30 pm when my helper girls were coming over to help me clean and get ready for the next day garage sale. The next garage sale was o the 13th and it was fairly warm out - I only had it open from 10:30 to 3:30 because most of my time was spent dealing with people on the boat and older cars and trailers in the yard and because I was leaving that night to be back in time for Valentines Day. On the 17th I was headed back to Anchorage to deal with more emptying of the house/ I was going to do a garage sale but it was too cold/DMV stuff/a potluck at the house for my cousin Gail from St. George - We had 40 people at the house on Saturday night- then on Sunday we had book club and oh my- it was too much- way too much- by Saturday I was tired, overwhelmed, cranky, discouraged and just wanted to leave. It was cold that weekend, overcast, everything looked dirty to me- the cars, the roads-on top of all that we had been debating on bringing down a car to stop the car rental situation but then we thought we should just sell a car up there and buy one down here which is what we did all day on Wednesday before I got on the plane and so I had to deal with tune ups/oil changes/ pre selling inspection- all this with only me - walking up and down the road to drop off and pick up the car by the end of the day I could not make it so I had to call and let them know I would be there the next day because I was at the bank dealing with title issues and on and on and on..... I had my helper girls but their mom asked if the other kids could visit (they have 5 total ) so I had two helpers and three non helpers that actually were made more work for me - same thing on Saturday but that included an older helper with her 3 year old so I think we had a three year old and a 4 year  old in the mix all wanting me to visit with them and I had 40 people arriving at 6pm and Gail spending the night so I wanted my room to be clean for Gail and Katy (her daughter) and then I would be in Rainey's bed AND I had to take a bath and clean up before everyone got there and I forgot to mention I had spent Thursday night in my Aunt Diana's living room chair because we were out shopping and she invited me to spend the night - at any rate what a mess-Just writing about it all makes me frustrated. AT any rate when I did get home on Monday morning I was thrilled - thrilled - I love landing in Burbank and walking off the plane into sunshine and green and happiness and just a real optimistic feeling. So then Tom went up there a few days ago and he is upset - everything is a mess - and we really have no direction and there is no way the house is going to sell in that state so we decided to simply hire movers to come in and pack up everything and store it all until summer and then go through and deal with it all at that point. Going up every weekend to deal with a garage sale is ridiculous and I am paying my helpers more than I am actually making and it seems like our house and privacy have been gone threw piece by piece - we have no idea where anything is - no idea what has been moved-taken-sold-given away or thrown away. It is a very upsetting situation. At this point all locks on the house are being changed and codes changed and everything moved out- Hopefully this feeling of disappointment in my choices of assistance will go away and I can move on without hard feelings.

On the positive side - Rainey and I found an Old Spaghetti Factory about 20 minutes up the road from us and if we go at lunch time it works out great with the roads/traffic - Our voice over coach is coming over today to put together an audition for Rainey that is due at 5pm today and then Rainey has Improv class - I have to remember that commercial class Is now on Sunday instead of Saturday and one more quick trip to Anchorage and I will be done with February - Bring it on March - I am so ready for you to arrive.