Sucking it Up

For those of you who have been keeping up with my life outside the blog-o-sphere, you know that I've recently moved. A whopping two blocks. Anyway, buying my first place has had its ups and downs, thrills and panic attacks, well you get the picture. One of the most consistent ups has been my credit card balance and one of the most consistent downs has been my bank balance.

While I've somewhat enjoyed just hemorrhaging huge amounts of cash on the new place, furnishings, etc, reality has started to set in that binge spending is not going to be a sustainable way of life considering the mortgage payment, condo payment, etc.

This is the state that I was in when I was at Lowes with Pam, standing in front of a display of vacuums. I had bought some lovely area rugs, which were starting to look not so lovely. I needed a vacuum. As I stood there looking at the ten different models while my mother expounded on the finer points of bag vs. non-bag and completely trashed the roomba (apparently my cousin got one and it sucked*) I realized that I really didn't care about the model or type of vacuum, but more about the fact that it would just be another blip in a long line of blips on my Amex.

I put my mother off by saying, 'I'm not mentally ready to buy a vacuum today. I need to think about this".

Anyway, I found the perfect solution to my little problem. I recently joined FreeCycle, which is a yahoo email group devoted to recycling. So, I posted a "WANTED: Vacuum Cleaner" email to the group and anxiously awaited a reply from someone who had an extra vacuum to give me.
This is how I met Brandon. Brandon for some inexplicable reason had not one, not two, but three vacuums that he had no use for. I'm not sure really what the back story is on the whole thing, but it's pretty safe to say that he had a lot to give. After a few phone conversations where I would politely say, "No, I will just take one" and trying to figure out a time for us to meet where the handoff could take place, I found myself driving through northeast to a strange address to pick up the vacuum of my dreams. I got the sense that Brandon sort of wanted to be home to meet the person who would be taking his vacuum(s). Over the course of our phone conversations, he definitely said, "Well, I'd like to be there to greet you". Unfortunately, due to some logistical issues, we settled on me just doing a porch pick-up, which I was fine with, because in all honesty, I just wanted a vacuum, not new friends or potential serial killers** at the door to greet me.

Before he gave me his address, Brandon provided a very thorough overview of my options. There was the blue one, which had superb sucking power, but was a little bit heavy. The yellow one just sucked and didn't work, and the grey one was a standard vacuum, but it had a lot of nifty hoses and attachments.

For those of you who have never had the experience, there is something very unnatural about walking up to a strange house and taking a vacuum off the front porch. I felt almost fugitive like as I wheeled the blue vacuum down the sidewalk back to my car.

Me and ole' blue (as I am calling the new vacuum) are doing just fine and my area rugs couldn't be cleaner. I only hope that through the magic of free cycle, blue's brothers (Gray and Yellow) also find good homes.


*Just a little vacuum related humor in case you missed it. Apparently, the roomba isn't that great of a vacuum. I have no knowledge of its sucking power. I think the issue is more related to the fact it just spins in circles.
**Note: This is added for dramatic effect. I have no knowledge of the rate of serial killers among recyclers. I would imagine its low, but then again, that's probably what recycling serial killers would like you to believe. I do not believe that Brandon was a serial killer luring young homeowners with his recycled vacuums. That would be pretty messed up.