Friends & Dumpster Diving

Who doesn't love a good adventure with some friends? I certainly do!

This past Sunday afternoon as I was driving around with my friend Stephen and my Andrew, I get a call from my sister asking me to come over to ND to help her put a couch in our van. To give you a bit of background, my sister is getting ready to move to Indy and start her career as a nurse next week, so she has been franticly packing, organizing and just trying to find stuff for her new place.

Enter Notre Dame.

The students just finished off another semester and were clearing out of campus. Now, the past few years my family has gotten very into the "Dumpster Diving" scene. Basically, it's like going to a huge FREE garage sale... in, or around a dumpster. Seriously, it may sound odd, or gross, but really, when it's just piles of stuff, it isn't terrible. Of course, it isn't always easy either, and there may be some work required, but the payoffs are usually fantastic-- especially at a campus like ND where many (but not all) the students usually have the cash to just buy all new stuff the next semester-- so why bother moving everything home to store it?! The thrifty side of me just LOVES doing the whole dumpster diving, and the adventure side of me just loves the fact that it's like going on a mini treasure hunt-- and you don't know what you will find.
God totally blessed my sister by letting her be in just the right place at the right time to be able to find a pretty sweet love seat/couch. The guys that were getting rid of it also told her that they had a matching overstuffed chair too if she was interested. Ummmm, YES! They were moving to California and didn't have room to ship/move it all. They also gave her some pretty sweet stereo equipment.
The rest of us just enjoyed poking around, and found a few other goodies-- a coffee table, map of the city and all other sorts of items. My sister even went back the next day and found more stuff- lamps, fun japanese rugs, board games, an iron and board, brand new couch pillows, and new toaster. The things people throw away. Daily I seem to be reminded of the enormous amount of wealth we as Americans are privy too. Sometimes I am almost embarrassed by our consumption when I look at the rest of the world. We just are just so blessed, and often forget that fact. We seem to just think that if only we had a little more, we would be happy.
Happiness. It most certainly can't be found long term in "stuff" As I looked around me I began to realize that all this had probably at one time been boughten because someone "had" to have it, or they thought it would make them and their lives better... but now it was just wasting away in the dumpster. So much for that happiness...

Life is more than stuff... it is people, relationships, love....

Don't forget that.