Mood Rings and Magic Carpets

We had a yard sale over the weekend on Saturday and it sprinkled then poured rain throughout the day despite a weather forecast of partly cloudy with 20% chance of rain. It may have been May 31, but we and all our early arrivals were all in long sleeves with hoods up, and shivering. Our first sale was for .50, a scrap of silk from an Indian sari I'd sewn into a scarf.

One of our early customers was a woman of approximately my same vintage, in a mini van who was particularly interested in the antique hand-knotted wool Hamadan 2'10 x 9'7 hall runner on sale for $200. The price was too high, it was early in the day, so she left without the rug and I forgot all about her.


That is, until she returned after about an hour, this time with an offer of $150 for the hall runner. I tilted my head back and made a face in indecision, and she said, "$160?" I snapped my head upright and put my hands out saying, "No! Stop! Let me think!" before she made another offer.

After a moment and another grimace skyward, I said, "Can you possibly do $175?" She grimaced in turn, then said, "Deal" which was awesome because it turns out I like to sell stuff and I like to haggle so was thrilled we'd reached an agreement.

It was only after the rug sale that the magic happened. Our customer stuck around after that, fingering through the piles of jewelry and jewelry-making findings and beads and glassware before buying a pair of earrings then another. As she went through the pile I mentioned to her that somewhere in there should be a mood ring though from what I understood, it didn't actually work anymore.

"MOOD ring?" She said vehemently, "Oh no, you don't want to know about my moods and my menopause!" which made me laugh out loud and reply, "I know, right?? Menopause!! GAWD!"

Then I said I used to follow politics but now I am so pissed off at pretty much everyone on both sides that I can't even bother listening to the circus anymore because I get so overheated it can give me a hot flash; she said that she can't stand the polarization of politics when people like her in-laws are so bound to either side that they don't even make sense, when actually all sides might have a point if everyone would just shut up and listen.

I said that it's a wonder, with all the baby boomer women approaching, experiencing, or vanquishing menopause, that there isn't rioting in the streets what with the mood swings and the hot flashes and generalized feelings of anger that maybe we should turn on Washington in the hopes of shaking that shit UP; she said she thought we might be able to get bills passed just by being so moody, sweaty and angry that lawmakers would sign anything just to get us out of their collective faces.

Is this perhaps a nascent movement? My long-time partner suggested a name: The Menopausal Millions March! Shall we harness the power surges of menopause for change?