Estate sales and antique trunks

I'm giving this blog thing a shot. Everyone I know that's awesome has a blog, so I was inspired to jump on the band wagon. I'm not sure that anything that goes on in my life is particularly interesting, but I'll share it anyway, in the hope that someone finds it interesting. So, here we go.

On the way home from REI the other day, my parents and I stumbled upon an estate sale in our neighborhood. Initially, I was unaware of the difference between an estate sale and a garage sale, but I learned quite quickly that there is HUGE difference. Estate sales are sort of unfortunate because having an estate sale necessitates a death, however, they usually are chalk full of treasures that have histories waiting to be discovered. Case in point, my glorious trunk!

I discovered the trunk after walking through a second time. It was priced at $250, which is quite a chunk of cash for a college student. But I seriously had to have this trunk. After trying, unsuccessfully, to knock the price down to at least $150, my dad convinced me to come back the next day. My dad discovered that everything would be discounted 50% on Saturday because it was the last day of the sale, and the sellers wanted to get everything out to ease their clean up and cut moving expenses. I reluctantly left the estate sale empty handed and vowed to return on Saturday prepared to lay down the cash for my coveted trunk.

Saturday morning rolls around and my mom and I spend way too much time and money on fresh organic produce at the farmer's market. Consequently, we ended up getting to the estate sale rather late in the morning. My heart was crushed when I ran to the corner of the garage that previously housed the trunk and found it empty. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed. My mom still wanted to look around, so I followed her, sulking all the while. She kept on saying, "Knock it off, Hillary. They probably just moved it." To which I would respond, most dramatically, "No, its gone! It was just too awesome, I should have known someone would snatch it up!".

Well, sure enough, my mom was right. The trunk was relocated behind the fur coat collection! I ended up purchasing my beloved trunk for $100. That may sound like a lot of money for an old trunk, but its so much more than just a wooden box with missing handles. I promise. Everything about this trunk has character. What I love most about it is the stories that it tells. Or rather, the stories that I imagine it tells. I'm venturing to guess that it was used as some sort of wedding trunk, possibly housing a wedding dress and other treasures. The trunk has several wedding pictures pasted in it and its lined with old newspaper. So cool.

The coolest thing to think about is the many people who may have owned this trunk. Even cooler is to think about the fact that I am now included as one of the owners. Someday, the trunk may be sold at my estate sale (which would be a kick ass estate sale by the way). I can get really carried away sometimes, but I even began to think about how God knows exactly who owned the trunk before me. He knows the intimate details of each owner's life and story, including mine. Now I know that God knows the intimate details of every human beings life considering He created us, but something struck me when I acknowledged the fact that God knows the history of my piece of junk trunk and all her wondrous owners. So, there's the story of how I acquired my awesome trunk. Now I just have to decide what I want to put in it. Ah, the trivial dilemmas of summer.