Life is a lot like Google. You intend to find one thing, then typically end up with something entirely different. Such as when my mom declared as innocent as a newborn that we should move after hearing my laments about how tiny our current house is.
Being a dutiful daughter, I googled 'new house' and the name of the town we're currently living in, and promptly found the house of our dreams three streets away.
I won't lie to you. It wasn't really as simple as that, and if you ever buy a house in Germany, be prepared for lots of visits to somber-looking buildings with people who seemed cheered by digits, facts, figures and plot numbers. Yes, my husband and I are entering the world of lawyers, lenders, and lawn boys. It's an exciting, and daunting, step.
Moving, they say, is one of the top ten reasons to find life a wee bit stressful. Never mind we're only moving 300 meters from our current house. In the world of banks and home improvement stores, we might as well be moving to Sweden.
Given the stressful ambience around shifting our worldly possessions from one house to the next, it's only natural we would wish to weed out some of the less empowering items in the house, such as the misshapen towels stuffed towards the backs of closets that found no joy in our home. Or the expensive, ignored toys of our children's early days.
Determined to make our move a resolute and lucrative experience, I did what any enterprising housewife would do. I took a few digital shots of my saleable wares and plopped them on eBay. Pretty soon everything in our house got scrutinized with my eBay Eagle Eye.
"Think anyone would want this?" my husband asked, holding up the handle bars from his 1997 mountain bike. I smiled warmly, encouraged by his enthusiastic, yet clueless embrace of our eBay venture.
"Why don't we just put that in the Goodwill pile, hon?" I remarked gently. We gathered toys, clothes, outgrown costumes and a few electronics in working condition. Then I set to work, writing irresistible, vivid copy for each of our sale items.
I'm no financial wizardress, but I must tell you what joy I find watching our unwanted things soar to a respectable sales price on the world's wildest online auction house.
"Hey gang! Rapunzel Barbie is up to two bucks!" I shouted happily while the TV droned on downstairs. Other than the sound of a cartoon and size-three feet slapping the wall with boob-tube-drunken regularity, I got no response.
This week I have sixteen items for sale, and I have found myself checking their status more than I check my email. Occasionally, I'd let out a "Golly Whoop!" when another bidder attempted to stake her claim over our stuff. In today's complicated world, my friends, it's the little things that count.
As for Google, I think my mom had meant something else by suggesting we move. But, Mama, at least it's not Sweden!
