Seriously? It's For Charity

I spent much of last week and this weekend at our local elementary school helping them set up for and run the annual rummage sale. This is a huge rummage sale, bringing in between $15K and $20K each year. People look forward to it all year.

But after the work I've put into it, my faith in humanity is a little shaken. This is a fundraiser for the school. This isn't life or death, and it certainly -- in my mind at least -- isn't worth cheating over.

And yet, cheat and lie and steal people did.

Yesterday, I went through all the shoes midway through the day and reorganized them. I matched up every shoe that the evening before had perfect matches. There were sixteen shoes now lacking a mate. In other cleanup, I found three of the missing mates tucked behind the bleachers and under racks by enterprising souls who hoped to buy the $2 shoes for half price today.

My duty in the morning was to stand near the toy table to ensure that no one opened the bags and rebagged the $1 per bag toys or changed prices. To everyone's surprise (this was the first year they'd stationed someone at the table), I didn't catch anyone doing anything like this. Instead, people were caught in the back of the gym opening bags and stuffing as many Barbies in them as they could instead of paying the $1 per bag. And the $2 stickers for some of the nicer toys were littered on the floor.

I sorted through the jeans to straighten out the piles after the morning rush, only to find nice clothes thrust under the piles in the hopes that no one would find them. The same thing happened when I started returning items to the belt and socks and hat bins.

Even during setup, we weren't immune. As I would price one section, I'd notice a random box under a table and discover items that someone had put away for themselves. And at the worker presale -- for those of us who put in at least eight hours during setup -- people showed up who hadn't done one iota of work and then pulled out the items that other people had hidden for them.

Today was the bag sale. At the entrance, you bought a bag for $5 and could fill it. If you had more items than fit in the bag, you had to go back to the entrance and buy a new bag -- no stashing things and then buying bags later in an effort to be fair to everyone. You don't want to know the giant boxes I saw being filled with no regard paid to the workers requesting that they follow the rules.

C'mon, people. Do you really need this stuff? Is it worth cheating over? Do you feel better about yourself for having done so?

I know that I felt like I needed a shower by the time I left.

They Don't Want Me!

I’m so bummed. I donate blood every 8 weeks, making my appointment for the next donation as I’m munching on the cookies the nice people at Heartland Blood Center so generously provide.

This is my 8 week appointment, and since I usually go right after yoga, I had a 9:50am appointment. However, there was no yoga today due to a conflict on my instructor’s part, which actually worked out well. A local elementary school had a huge rummage sale today, and they volunteered to share the profits with Mister Man’s preschool and another local elementary if parents from the two schools pitched in with volunteers.

Peachy! I rescheduled my blood donation to the earliest available appointment, at 8:10. I was still going to miss the opening of the rummage sale, but I’d be there by 9:30 – since the school is 15 minutes south of me while the blood center is about 20 minutes northwest of me.

I showed up right at 8:10 on the dot, yay me! And it wasn’t too busy, which is unusual for a Saturday morning. I filled out my paperwork and read my educational materials. At that point, I realized my temperature was going to be very low because I’d been drinking water in the car, but I figured I could explain that upfront and have it not be an issue.

I actually briefly thought about deferring. I didn’t feel sick at all, but I was slightly sniffly. While I was 99% sure it was due to allergies, I’m a neo-natal donor (O Negative blood is all they’ll give to newborns and for good reason!). The immune systems of those babies are especially delicate, but I pretty much knew I was fine, and if for some reason I felt at all off over the next couple of days, I can call and ask them to toss the blood.

The nice lady was pretty much immediately ready for me, and we headed into the little room for our chat. She checked over my paperwork and verified that I’d indeed read the educational materials. She handed over the little thermometer, and I explained about my water issue. No problem.

Then she starts taking my pulse. Up next is the blood pressure, which in a twisted way is my favorite part. I tend to have low blood pressure, and I always try to see if I can beat my last score. Last time it was 96/58.

As I was thinking about this, the pulse check continued. Finally, she looked up and asked me if I’d had a lot of caffeine this morning. Curious, but sensing that something was unusual, as I’d never had this question before, I explained that I – horror of horrors – don’t like coffee and don’t drink anything with caffeine.

She hmmm’ed. Uh-oh. I figured that for some reason my pulse was racing, which was a bit of a surprise. Then she explained that my pulse was skipping, and that they have a new order in the last two weeks that anyone with a pulse that skips has to be deferred. She tried it again, but apparently my pulse skipped again, so I have to wait 24 hours to donate. Which is Sunday when they’re closed. Which means I am now rescheduled for next Saturday.

Per the nurse, this is sometimes a fluke thing where your pulse skips but the next day, it’s fine. She assured me that most likely it’s nothing to worry about. So now the debate starts – do I google skipping pulse and see what horrors await me in the 0.005% chance that whatever I discover applies to me or wait until next Saturday to see if my pulse has stopped skipping?

The only good news is that I was able to get to the rummage sale by 8:45, and they definitely needed my help. They sold tons of stuff (probably literally) by the time we closed at 4. Amazingly though, there was still so much stuff left that hadn’t sold – including some really nice stuff, which is a shame. Fortunately, they have arrangements with charities to take what doesn’t sell (with the exception of things that should have been thrown away in the first place by the people who donated them). Quick PSA: when donating something, if you wouldn’t give it to your best friend because it’s too gross/broken/out of date/torn/stained, please don’t donate it to charity!

I won’t know until next week how much the rummage sale made, nor our split, but between the Cinco de Mayo event and the rummage sale proceeds, our PTO definitely will have some funds to start off our year right.

Plus, a woman I was talking to at the rummage sale has a brother who can most likely donate ice cream for our school if we do a back to school picnic (which I have my eye on doing as a way to build more of a community).

Oh yeah… and the wee ones are back safely from Florida! They had a great time and told me all about the purple and rainbow slides that they loved and the Shamu jumps they saw and the belly splashers they did. Then they crashed. At least they know that tomorrow is Mother’s Day and they they’re supposed to be quiet when they wake up. We’ll see if that really happens though!