I GOT IT! I got the damn picture. Whew! Can you say YARN DIET?
When G got home last night I told him I got his birthday present, MY birthday present, our anniversary present and Christmases and Chanukahs to come. (And because he’s the sweetest boy in the Universe, after I told him about it he actually asked me, what’d you get for yourself? DOH! He said, no, that won’t do! Mwah, my love!)
So it was a live auction kind of thing and because I’ve never bid on anything save two roving things on ebay I thought, why not watch the live auction stuff. I put in my high bid and opened up the applet thingy at around 11AM when “they” said my lot was going to come up. Well, apparently my AUCTION started at 11AM, but my lot didn’t scroll past until 3:30PM and I watched all that freaking time. Yup. I’m crazy like that. But it was pretty fascinating with the bids running up the screen and the auctioneer saying (well typing – there wasn’t actually any sound – although that would’ve been really cool) it was about to close – and my heart raced a little at the thought that I’d be missing out on the cloisonne tea cups engraved with strange birds that may or may not have been from Italy. Weird shit out there. And people buying it. I thought I had it all figured out – I was an Internet bidder, surely and there were floor bids and I was a little disconcerted that only floor bids seemed to win. And then the reserve wouldn’t be met and the auctioneer would post a message reserve not met – bid again – and no bids would come in and the reserve wouldn’t be met and yet the floor bid would win. Interesting. All of it. And then FINALLY it seemed like my print was coming up. I was sitting on the edge of my chair – nails lost long ago over the fierce bidding on a Bavarian turn-of-the-century cuckoo-clock – when the bidding started. $50 Floor bid. $60 Internet bid (could that be me?!) $90 bid. $375 bid Floor bid. Auction CLOSED.
WHAT?! How could it go from $90 to $375 and who was this FLOOR BID person stealing my prized Dali print that would make Georgie cry!?!?!? (Always the goal of any gift. I’m shameless, I know.)
I called my sister to tell her I lost. I was almost in tears, exhausted from watching every last bad oil painting from someone’s basement stroll by on the screen. Tired from all the gilt. All the pewter. All the vermeil.
Then I went looking for the print online – even though I had looked a million times before and never found it. In fact, I had given up until Lee Ann had read a comment I made on Jenny’s site and SHE found it for me. Bless you Lee Ann! Bless you. And to compound the problem, Dali, in his infinite obsession wisdom, did 819 versions of St. George slaying the Dragon. But ONLY ONE is the RIGHT ONE. And of course, that’s the hardest to find.
Oh but find it I did. Right here. I was about to buy it when I thought, you know what? I better talk to G first. Maybe we didn’t like it as much as I thought we did. Maybe it’s better I didn’t win the auction. Think of all the YARN I could buy with that money. I did buy him a $24 briefcase that he’ll be (maybe) perfectly happy with. I rationalized the whole thing away.
And then I checked my email. Turns out I was the floor bid of $375. I WON THE DAMN PRINT!!! I instantly felt sick to my stomach. Buyer’s remorse set in like a thick fog on the ocean. And how the hell did the bidding go from $90 to $375 JUST LIKE THAT?
I actually called them and they were quite nice about it – explaining to me that my bid was in already and they bumped it up to meet the reserve (since my high bid was just over the reserve number) instead of having to bump it up $10 a shot for the next hour. They saved me time.
And while I’m feeling all sick about it, G said to me, “that was so smart of you!” and telling me I have to frame it AS SOON AS WE GET IT and scoping out places in the house to hang it and refusing to look at it online because he wants to be surprised by it! And now you know why I’ve been with this incredible, delightful, crazy-as-me man for fifteen years.
Oh yeah. I finished the second square for the John Glick Project while I was watching old Fisher Price toys scroll by and I did some knitting on my Sunshine socks, only to find out I had added an extra stitch somewhere back about 1000 rows and had to rip it. Rip it good. Dadadada da don da don. Rip it GOOD!
This auction website sounds very exciting. What is it? Maybe I don’t want to know.
Congratulations on the score! That’s a great feeling, ain’t it?
Hurray for G for being so understanding. And just think you saved $110 from buying it from that rare poster site! Even if it didn’t go exactly as you thought it would (grin). (And yes, I know, I know, I’m a glass-is-half-full kind of person.) Congratulations! And happy birthday/anniversary/Christmas/New Year . . . etc etc!
Oh yes, I meant to say–your post title was just perfect.
Whew! That was one suspenseful post! I was biting my own nails and I’ve never even seen this print! I’m so glad you won though. And if you ever figure out how those wierd online/floor bid auctions work out, let me know. It’s been confusing me for ages.
Aww…I so know that angst. Ours came yesterday in the form of custom drapes and blinds. Try almost 10x that amount. Sigh. Kevin cancelled it today.
I am so happy things worked out! For you, Georgie, Kevin and me!
Thank god you didn’t end up with 2 of them!
I did one purchase on eBay that gave me that elation and remorse in the same moment. Ultimately the elation was the right feeling. And it wasn’t anything as special as this. And to think you were trying to talk yourself into the BRIEFCASE! xoxo Kay
Auctions can be thrilling (and expensive) and so much fun! I love the butterflies I get when I raise my card to bid — the should I, shouldn’t I angst.
Happy, happy day!!
(I think I want to marry you guys.)
Yay! So glad you got the print!! And reading your post was so cathartic!
Man, I think I need a drink after all that…
I have no idea why I can find things in five minutes that people search months for. Except for when it’s for me, and then there’s no way in hell I can find it unless I DO spend months…
I’m so glad I could help, and that you WON!!! Yay!!! And Georgie is so sweet that you might still get to buy yarn!!!
Phiou. Life is great.
hey — if you guys marry Vicki, you better not forget me ….. maybe you could adopt me…. at the very least I want to be flowergirl…..
ps. adore the print! congrats!
Congrats on the Dali print…sounds like it was well worth it and will be appreciated and loved for a very long time by both of you.
I’m pretty sure that the beach socks in my banner are the same yarn as your Sunshine socks. I used Trekking XXL but I don’t remember the color number.
Yay, for you getting the awesome print! It will be a great story to tell everytime someone says “Where’d you get that awesome print?”.
You frogged because of one stitch? Rats!
OOOOH HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!! I’m so so so SO glad you got the print!!! that’s AWESOME! You two are really lucky to have each other 🙂
What an awesome print… great Anniversary present!
So glad you got it. You will be too, I’m sure Georgie is. What else you gonna do with the money?
Oh yeah. Well, there’s more to life than yarn. 😉 I keep telling myself that anyway.
Happy anniversary!!!