Something borrowed.

First, I have to apologize for a couple of wacky sentences that were posted in the past two blogs. It was Bring Your Laptop to Work Day the past two days, and I was writing when I wasn't busy with my job.

My job is not unlike a paper-pushing version of working at McDonalds. When it's busy, you have many tasks. When it's not busy, you do things to make it look like you're busy.

So I blogged a bit yesterday, in between the busy times. That explains the sentences that weren't read and edited before they were posted.

And today I'm listing.

That means I sell stuff that I find. On ebay. As I mentioned before, I'm a single mom of two teenaged boys. I don't think I need to get out the full orchestra - that one violin will do.

What's fun about the ebay? It's my cottage industry. It's my education, sans tuition. It's my hobby.

It's really less about ebay itself, and more about the process of ebay that's interesting.

In the beginning, I found that, in order to do well, I needed to get completely up to speed on what I was interested in; namely early American pottery. I have no idea how I fell into that niche - I think I found some dinner plates that were interesting to look at, researched them, sold them for a profit and thought it was a good idea. And poof. The die were cast.

Looking for stuff and researching what I find is really the most interesting part of the process. I'm not fond of scrounging for packing materials. I don't like to dig in dumpsters for cardboard boxes.

But there is a bit of a thrill about knowing that virtually everything I touch when it comes to my cottage industry is borrowed or found. I borrow the boxes, bubble wrap and packing peanuts from the last person who found use in their function, and then I pass them on. I borrow the knowledge I glean from finding something cool and pass it to the next thing I sell. I find these cool things and, for the most part, I pass them along to someone who was searching for just that item.

And of course, some cool things are just too hard to resist keeping for myself.

So it's listing day. I did a whole lot of listing today. I'm all about the inventory control, and inventory's up.

I have a high appreciation for - but a very low attachment to - the items I find. So it's time to list, to divest myself of some of the things I've found. They're fun to look at, but once someone else sees their value, it's easy to see them leave.