Genomics

I don't remember when exactly it was but maybe like eight months ago, I went to my OB/Gyn for a routine appointment. When I was done with my doctor, I was asked to go into another room to be "swabbed". I didn't ask a lot of questions, because those who know me, know my motto in life is not to ask questions I don't care what the answers are. You need me to be swabbed, I'll be swabbed. It wasn't really presented as a question either. I guess I could've declined, but why? I assumed that if they're asking me to do it, it must be necessary. I know they said it was some kind of test having to do with genetics that sounded cool but you know, I have a very short attention span.


Greg Young is the guy who works for Gulfstream Genomics, the company that does the testing, told me that the test would tell Dr Wiener (my doctor), and me what medications are metabolized best by my body and what doesn't. This was extremely intriguing to me.

The main reason I was so interested in this testing is that I have had migraines, terrible migraines, since I was a kid. I'd say they started when I was about six or seven. I know it was before I could swallow pills. Migraines run in my family on my father's side. My mom got a headache like once a year so she never really got it and honestly never really investigated doing much about it. I don't remember how I figured it out- maybe from getting pain pills from a wisdom tooth extraction when I was in college, but most over the counter pain medications never seemed to help. College for me was in the mid-90s so I was given Vicodin or Codeine or Oxycodone. Yes, those are strong. And addictive, but I don't have an addictive personality to substances. Sugar and cake, yes. Drugs and alcohol, no.

I'd gone to so many doctors since college because of insurance changes and moving, and they've all given me different prescription meds that are supposed to work for migraine. Fiorecet, Celebrex, Imitrex, etc.Yet they never did. Only opioids, which are not prescribed for migraines. Before opioids became an epidemic, they could be prescribed whenever in however many pills. It's crazy that I could say I have excruciating back pain (which I've had since 2004) and get the pills but not for vomit inducing migraines. It's all pain. I'm no scientist, but pain is pain.

I had a horrific incident with an unscrupulous general practitioner. He'd prescribed me oxycodone for the migraines. I cut them up into four pieces each because they make me tired and I wouldn't be able to function if I took more than a quarter. I ran out of pills before my honeymoon in 2006 and I called the office. They told me I needed to come in to the office to get that prescription. I went in and loudly I was told by the doctor in front of the full waiting room that I couldn't have those pills for migraine and basically implied that I was like a junkie or something. I was so mortified. If they'd told me over the phone I couldn't have them, I wouldn't have gone in there. He'd given them to be before for that. It had taken about a year to use them so it's not like I'd been back to try to score. I felt like I could never go back there and didn't. I also was out of pills so I was back to just trying to live with the pain.

I also was embarrassed. I felt like I legitimately need these pills. I was treated like a liar. People who don't have migraine have no idea how debilitating it is. It's not "just a headache". I've missed events, like the Harlem Wizards game my husband was playing in for a school fundraiser, because I was laying on the bathroom floor in between vomiting. I was afraid to ask any doctor because I had PTSD from the last time. And I only really have an OB/gyn as a doctor. I just never found a general practitioner I felt any connection to like I do with the person who delivered my son. Plus, having another doctor just seems redundant. My doctor does my blood work like every six months and knows me.

I can't live with the pain of migraines though. At some point in 2012, I couldn't live with the back pain either. I told Dr Wiener about my back and he ordered an MRI. I had the MRI and it turns out I have bulging discs and degenerative disc disease. Because of that, he could prescribe me the oxycodone and did. I'm actually willing to deal with the back pain and only take the oxycodone for the migraine.

What the oxycodone does is just take the edge off the pain. It takes it down to a dull pain where I don't feel like I'm going to throw up and I'm not crying in pain. That's all I want. Dull pain is a cake walk and I can live with that. Knowing that I could never predict if I'd be able to get a refill, I really had to know my pain threshold to decide to whether to use one of those quarters. To me it's like being lost in the woods with only enough food to live for a short time and having to ration it out. By the way- to illustrate how sparingly I use them, it's 2018 and I'm only now almost done with them. As an aside, I also have a strong suspicion that a decent amount were stolen from my house. I really don't know by whom, but I just know they're missing. And NOW, the doctor can't even prescribe them anymore. I don't even want to think about how screwed I am.

This brings me to the genomic testing Gulfstream did. When my test came back, it turns out that my body doesn't metabolize most common pain medications well and that's why nothing was working. Advil, Motrin, Celebrex - none were good, and I have it ON PAPER NOW. Funny (or not funny) enough, I'd had a terrible experience with Celebrex years ago.

When Dr Wiener and Greg were going over the test results with me and I saw how almost no pain meds metabolize well for me, I got truly emotional. I finally felt validated for what I'd been saying all this time. That I wasn't a junkie for asking for what worked for ME. I don't know if it would work for someone else. I'm not a doctor and I know this is a highly addictive drug for most or many people. I just knew for damn sure what does NOT work for me. In my mind it's like toddlers and cold medicine. Because some parents made poor decisions using cold medicine to make their kids sleep and overdosed them, all kids under six are supposed to suffer with "natural" remedies that DON'T WORK. Everyone gets punished.

I don't know why every doctor's office doesn't use this kind of test. I know with the neurologist, before I got my Botox for migraine, for insurance purposes of paying for it, I had to "fail" two or three medications before they'd okay the Botox. Insurance had to pay for three visits, three medications, and I had to pay co-pays and waste time. I had to waste time in pain. If they'd just given me the test or I could've brought the test results had I had them already (I didn't), we could've skipped all that. I don't know why everything has to be made more difficult than it needs to be.

I'm not sure how it works - as in, I'm not sure how Wiener ended up having this company come in. But he's always on the cutting edge of what's new. Last I saw him, he was deciding to bring a Cool Sculpting machine into his office. I guess the idea is that you have a baby, aren't happy with your post baby body. and you freeze your fat away. I think that's brilliant.

Insurance should pay for the testing. I have Horizon Omnia Silver and they paid. They'd be crazy not to pay. It ends up helping them in the long run. They don't have to pay for medications that don't work or appointments people don't need. I will say that without insurance it would be very expensive. Somehow the wrong code was entered when it was put through insurance. I ended up with a bill for 4k then another for 8k or something like that. It was a mistake for me to be billed but that's about how much it would've been if I had to pay for it. Before you let anyone swab you, check with your insurance first to make sure they're going to pay.

The other part of why this is great is that treatment can be more accurate.When I went back a month or two later, I got swabbed again. I didn't ask why but then the next time I came in I asked what the last swab was for. Greg said that it was to check to see if I was taking what was prescribed and if it was still working. So I guess it's like a check up that's more accurate than relying on a patient's word. When it comes to my health, I like things to be as accurate as possible. The way to do that is to have checks and balances. Not everyone is honest or remembers to take what they're supposed to take.

So Dr Craig Wiener offers this cutting edge technology. It makes me feel confident in my doctor knowing he's always adding the newest technologies to make patient care better. I feel like every time we turn around, we're being offered less for higher costs (in terms of insurance). I want to go where I'm at least offered the latest in what can be offered for optimum care. I don't know what I'm going to be able to do to alleviate my migraines any, but at least there's info on what doesn't work with my body. That's a step in the right direction!

Comprehensive Women's Care of Paramus: https://www.womenscareparamus.com/

See the photo below. That's just a random page in alphabetical order of different medications and how they would or wouldn't work for me. I have no idea what most of those are for, but you're tested for everything. Notice though, what it says for Celebrex. And note that I mentioned above that I had a terrible reaction to it years ago. Had I had this test, I'd have known not to even take it in the first place! 

An Unfathomable Tragedy

I can't believe I have to write this but here it goes....

So, E has been going to Jeff to get his hair cut since he was two and a half years old. It took awhile to find someone too. I'd gone to all the "kids" hair places in the immediate area. All of them. Rita's, Charles, David Alan Kids. I had someone at Rita's for awhile, but then he went missing. Literally, missing, to the point where I wrote a blog looking for Ricky, but to no avail. Then I was like, why am I paying twenty-five dollars for a child's haircut. That's the going rate at all these kid places and it's a racket.

B, E and I would go to eat dinner in Garden State Plaza and Plaza Salon was right there in the mall. It was easy to either eat dinner and then get a haircut for him or vice versa. None of these kid places are open at seven or eight o'clock on a Saturday evening.

After going through a few hairdressers, we found Jeff. With E doing acting, he has to have his hair relatively the same all the time. He has to look like his head shot photos. Jeff totally gets that and cuts his hair perfectly every time. Plaza Salon left the mall, but it's still on Route 4, just on the other side, so it's still extremely convenient with they're late hours during the weekend til nine and Saturday until eight.

Jeff always takes E on the fly, gives him a great, quick cut, we chat about life, and we're on our way. Even B started going to him. It's been like six years now. We've known Jeff before he was engaged, before marriage, before kids. We knew how happy he was before and during all these milestones.

We've never met Danielle, but we'd hear about her all the time. I remember him telling us they she was pregnant. Then when she was pregnant AND uncomfortable, and I told him to go get her a Snoogle pillow from Buy Buy Baby after work and surprise her with it.

He is always interested in what E's doing on TV and what auditions he's gone on. He's just a really nice guy. I don't want to get him in trouble, but he never even raised the haircut cost on us even though he knew E would've aged up to the next price. I know it was hard for him to tell us he had to charge us a dollar more because that's what the minimum is now. He could've just said on E's birthday last year- "hey, happy birthday, now you owe more for your hair". But he didn't. And we really appreciated it.

We knew Danielle was having the new baby (we didn't know a name, just that it's a girl, Gia Rose!) between Christmas and New Years. B had gone to get a haircut and said that if E needs one, Jeff's out after X date. I timed it so he wouldn't need one until Jeff would definitely be back.

We went there last night and when we pulled in, B said that he didn't see Jeff. Jeff's chair is by the window so we always look to see if he's there. We went in, heard what happened, and were shocked. I immediately Googled them to see if there was anything online (my first go-to). Jeff is kind of private and hates social media, even though I've tried to get him to promote himself on Facebook for years! So I knew I couldn't find anything on Facebook (except now would be a good time to go on Jeff...). I saw the article in the Daily Voice and knew I'd be writing this today. I texted Jeff to ask if it was okay, told him it would be shared on Facebook and Twitter, and he still gave me the go ahead.

Long story short- Ten days after having her baby girl, Danielle had a thunderclap headache and bleeding on the brain. She went into a medically induced coma. Last night I believe we were told she's out of the coma, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Regardless, she's going to need a lot of therapies and who knows what else. She's a teacher, and obviously can't teach. Jeff is a barber who doesn't get paid if he doesn't work. He can't work while his wife is fighting for her life and he's taking care of a two year old and a newborn. I'm sure he has some help from friends and family but there are still going to be tons of medical bills and things they'll need that insurance just doesn't cover.

Someone set up a Go Fund Me account so I'm sharing it. Any amount can help ease some of the financial stress that this is putting on this young family. Jeff is the nicest guy, and I can only imagine how hard this is for him and the kids, not to mention Danielle who has a long road ahead of her medically.

https://www.gofundme.com/help-bring-danielle-home

That's So Marvelous

After yet another day where the news of the real world makes me want to take to the bed, I'm here to discuss television. Our only escape now.

I don't know about you, but I'm always reluctant to try new TV shows. It's the whole getting invested. That first investment- figuring out what's going on, learning everyone's name, the whole drill. I want new shows, but getting into them seems like work sometimes. Then, there's always the fear that if I invest, it'll be cancelled. Sometimes, I just DVR like half a season or a whole one, being that some "seasons" are now only ten episodes (WTF?). Then I binge them when I'm done with all my regular programming- either by hiatus or just timely watching.

What's funny is that I get casting calls for E for many of these new shows. I'd gotten numerous ones for The Marvelous Mrs Maizel. The times and dates never really worked for me and it didn't sound interesting. I hated Mad Men. YES, I HATED IT. It was boring AF and SO slow. I'm not into the fifties in general. I don't like the music, the clothes, or the lifestyle. I would've jumped out a window being a fifties housewife. So a period show like that had no appeal for me. I COULDN'T HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG.

I hadn't really read the premise. I just saw fifties, housewife and I was over it. Then I heard it was really good. I saw previews for it. Over the holidays, when all our shows were on hiatus, B and I decided to give it a whirl.

Ok, if you're not Jewish, I don't know if you'll *relate* to it as much as we did. You'll still think it's funny and great though! When I talk about being Jewish by culture, this show is exactly what I meant. I don't know much about actual religion, but I got every reference and both B and I laughed our asses off. No one gets using a fabulous brisket as collateral more than I do!!

I read articles (editorials?) on Kveller sometimes. One lady recently wrote how much she loves the show BUT.... But, she has an issue with how uninvolved Midge is with her kids. Well, did she ever see Mad Men? Season one (all I got through), Betty Draper sent her kids out to play with plastic bags on their heads or something like that. That was the times. And some parts of fifties parenting doesn't seem that bad. We could use a little more parents not being up their kids behinds so much. This was a time when kids were not the center of your universe, but just part of it. I think that was a positive. Midge is supposed to be twenty-six and a newly single mother, living with her parents. Her mom doesn't work so she's around to watch her kids. I'd call it more, benign neglect.

I'm the first to bitch, and HAVE, mercilessly (Ambig-jew-ity), when we can't have a good, funny, show with intact Jewish families. Where the joke doesn't come from the typical nebbishy Jewish guy married to the blond shiksa. Or on Odd Mom Out, which was supposed to be semi-autobiographical, where of course, the very Jewish Jill Weber (Jill Kargman) is the Odd Mom Out because she married into a wealthy WASP family. Except that in real life, Jill Kargman is married to a Jew. I asked her why an intact Jewish family couldn't be a good show and she just gave me a bunch of excuses.

But this is a whole show filled with Jewish characters! We FINALLY GOT ONE. So quit complaining that all the actors aren't Jewish. I'll take the characters. I'm good on this one and the Jewish quotient.


Of course, I think the success of the show, and why it's so damn good is all Amy Sherman-Palladino & Dan Palladino. The genius also behind Gilmore Girls, if you didn't know. Where do you think all the super wordy, ultra quick dialogue comes from?? Kudos on another winner Amy & Dan.

Jewish or not, getting the references or not, you should check it out. It's a phenomenal cast. Rachel Brosnahan, while not part of the Tribe, plays a amazing Jewish Midge. The rest of the cast is superb too. Alex Borstein, who I only know as Dawn from Getting On, is hysterical as Midge's reluctant friend and eventual manager. Tony Shalhoub plays Midge's dad. I didn't realize that Michael Zegen grew up in the town next to where I live and his mom is the Hebrew School coordinator at the Jewish Center in my town. I hate his character, but he's great as Midge's philandering husband. Last but definitely not least is Kevin Pollack, who plays Joel's father, and to the letter- like every Garmento you've ever come across in this lifetime.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR SEASON TWO!!! How could they only give us eight F'ING episodes?? (Amazon Prime)

Another one we picked up to watch in December is SMILF. You should know what that stands for. It's about a single mom in Boston- a "Southie". Her life is a MESS. She has an amazing kid, food issues, a mentally ill mother, played to perfection by Rosie O'Donnell, a mess of an ex- her kid's father, and the best of television BFFs I've seen in a long time. It's a half hour show, written and starred in by Frankie Shaw.

This show isn't for the conservative or prudish. It's has truly some of the most messed up scenes I've ever seen on TV. I wasn't sold on it at first, like in the first episode. But I HAD to see where it was going to go. I'm glad I did. The cast is awesome- Connie Britton plays Frankie's extremely wealthy, totally narcissistic, lonely, needy boss. Frankie tutors her children and is sort of like an assistant. Rosie O'Donnell certainly knows how to play mental illness. Raven Goodwin is my favorite. As Frankie's best friend, she is ride or die, hysterically.

I don't know where Frankie got all this to write about- she's playing Irish Catholic, relatively uneducated, and poor but in real life, she's Jewish and very well educated (Barnard College of Columbia University). The only things I know (hope) she has in common with the character are that they're from the Boston area and they each have a young son. She’s very convincing as a hot mess though! You believe she IS Bridgette Bird- a SMILF who named her kid Larry Bird because she LOVES basketball and always dreamed she'd play for the WNBA. This is on Showtime.

We just started 9-1-1 on FOX Wednesdays, which is only two episodes in. Also a great cast- Angela Bassett, Peter Krause and (AGAIN!) Connie Britton!! I do love me some Connie. We may not have Friday Night Lights anymore, but she's everywhere right now. 9-1-1 is a show from the perspective of the paramedics and firefighters. Since I watch all the Chicago shows (PD, Fire, and Med), this is right up my alley. It's graphic and emotional, edge of your seat kind of stuff, but it's great.

On episode two, you'll say to yourself, "Where do I know her from?". You'll be talking about Autumn Reeser who played Taylor Townsend on The OC. I still miss that show. This show is a real nail-biter and it reminds me a lot of Southland actually. Another gone-too-soon fave.


As far as new shows that started in the fall, we really only have The Good Doctor on ABC. That's quickly become a favorite for both of us. I didn't realize the star is Freddie Highmore from August Rush. B and E love that movie. That has a great cast and premise. If you haven't started it, I definitely recommend that.

We were watching Wisdom of the Crowd, but thanks to Jeremy Piven being pervy or sexually harassing women, that's cancelled. It was a really cool premise, but whatever. That's done. I have one left to watch but I don't know if I'll bother. I don't know if they're going to wrap it up or what. Maybe they'll move Monica Potter over to 9-1-1 to reunite with Adam...oops, I mean Peter Krause.

That's all I got for now. I have The Brave DVR'd but haven't watched one yet.

Happy TV watching. I'm going back to checking on whether my old clothes are selling....

Not Even Gonna Lie

Seriously, I'm not even going to lie. I just opened my blog to see the last update was Dec 8, 2017. I am SLACKING. On this. I had said I previously wasn't writing because of politics and the state of the country, world, etc. And that's partially true. However, that's not the whole deal. I actually have a decent amount of things to write about. Happy New Year, by the way.

I'll give you a little teaser of some things to come- I found awesome French Macaroons. I got my genetics tested or something - by a company called Gulf Stream. It's testing to see what medications work with your body and which don't, in every part of your whole system. Yeah, in this context, that may not make a whole lot of sense, but I'll explain further in it's own entry. Greg- I got you. I'm just slacking. (Greg is the guy who does my testing). The holidays happened. We saw some movies. We watched some tv shows. Awesome tv shows. Some of my shows got cancelled because sexual harassment and allegations of rape. Not me, but the actors in the shows. I went to a 40th birthday party at a cool place I want to tell you about.

But I need more time for all that. Instead I'm going to just talk about shopping. Or selling. Or both.

What I've been obsessed with, and spend all my time dealing with, is selling my old stuff. I talked about Tradesy before. And I talked about Poshmark recently. But Poshmark is a totally different animal than Tradesy and eBay. I tried to sell on eBay once. It was so confusing and a rip off, that I posted a few thing, they didn't sell, and at the end of the listings, I owed THEM money. Tradesy was good when I started with them. Their site is the most professional looking. They also used to only take 9% commission. It was 2.9% to deposit into your bank account. Then they went to 14.9% commission, without doing much else to help sales. Now they're just over 19%, not counting the 2.9% bank fee, and there's NO help with sales.

I keep my stuff on Tradesy just in case something sells, but Poshmark has a "feed" like Facebook. So people are liking and sharing your stuff all day long. I started selling on there in mid-October. I've sold fifty-four items. FIFTY-FOUR (update that to fifty-eight only 24 hours later). Now, because Poshmark seems to run on haggling, some of these things went for ten dollars, so the profit is ridiculously low with Poshmark's cut taken out. But it's fine- the old stuff is leaving my house and it adds up. I'm also not in any hurry to sell these things, so if someone really lowballs me, I just don't accept the offer.

Potential buyers do ask QUESTIONS. They might ask a lot of questions, even before they buy that ten dollar item. Someone asked to see a photo of the inside of a kid's practically new coat. Then, *crickets*. Yesterday, while the person was super cool in general, she wanted to know if a pair of E's shoes "smell". I told her I didn't think so but I'd go home and sniff them later. I did, they didn't, and *crickets*.

All of my stuff is stored where we don't allow the cat. Not specifically because I want to keep it cat-free, which is just a bonus, but because we just don't want her in these spaces. When someone wants measurements, or the only piece of info I don't have listed about something, I have to battle Kitty-High-Five to get to my things. Really- you're buying an Express shirt with stretch from 2000. Do you have such abnormally long or Cee Lo arms that your purchase hinges on the arm measurements?

I've bought only shirts from Poshmark and I've never needed measurements. I just make it work. Or re-sell. But whatever- I'll have it out with Kitty to do some "pit to pit" measurements for whomever asks. I should've recording measurements when I first started listing but I'd never asked when buying and I've never been asked when selling on Tradesy so I didn't really think about it. I'm starting to think some people ask questions just to mess with you. To see if you'll do it. Like being hazed. Especially because when they do buy it, I'm supposed to make it pretty like a ZTA "do-nice".

Of course I found a "group" or two- like message boards, but on Facebook, of other Posh-ers as I think we're called. The one group has been great for bitching and goofing about situations that arise, and general questions and whatnot that have helped me make sales. I didn't realize though, the one annoying thing about that group is that the admins need to approve your question or post before it's posted. So if you want a quick answer, that isn't happening. They really police what you can and can't post about too. Yesterday we got the rule that we can't post about lowballers "because there are too many people in the group". I have NO IDEA what one thing has to do with the other and the whole idea of "groups" is to bond with the other members. Part of bonding is bitching and lowballing is what there is to bitch about when talking Poshmark. I guess I'll be limiting my time in that group.

The pros of selling on Poshmark are many. You have access to SO many people seeing your stuff. I have almost ELEVEN THOUSAND followers in the almost three months I've been selling. The more followers, the more shares I get from them, the more chance that someone is going to buy something. If you have a lot of stuff to sell, without making your own website, it's a platform with a lot of users in general.You also are dealing with people from all over the country, people who may not or flat out don't have the access to the kind of shopping we do on the coasts & metro areas.

I haven't really experienced the cons except for the exorbitant commission they take. Apparently, there are buyers who are shady- some sellers have talked about buyers who have gotten an item, it didn't fit or they just didn't like it, so they damaged it themselves, then opened a claim against the seller. You can't return something just because you don't like it or it doesn't fit right. Only when an item is damaged or not as described. I haven't had anyone do something like that, so far. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen, but I guess the more you sell, the more chance of encountering someone unscrupulous like that is possible.

It's also VERY time consuming if you want to be successful. I'm sharing people's stuff whenever I get a moment during the day. I'm sharing my own stuff. I'm watching tv and sharing. I'm listening to you talk, I'm just not looking you in the eye because I'm hitting share. It's not like reading Facebook or looking at Instagram, not engaging. I'm listening to every word but I'm also hitting share on items I'm not even looking at.

I also didn't really take my photo taking very seriously at first. I've always had a dress form but I didn't think about background or lighting. Some photos I originally just took quickly and on hangers. Some were really wrinkled. B has a light box he set up in my little "dressing room"- our small spare bedroom where I keep my clothes, get dressed, etc. A light box sounds like something small, when it's more like a tent that could fit like 2-3 adults sitting in it. It takes up like three quarters of the room. It's cool though and I've been spending time re-taking most of my photos. They have to fit in a "square" on Poshmark and their photo editing is beyond primitive. Most of my old photos didn't fit into their square so some were cut off and looked bad. Now, most of the photos look awesome, especially in comparison.

Again though, time consuming. I've been in that bedroom with the door closed, so the cat doesn't come in, for hours on end. The cat is throwing herself at my door, meowing like someone is stepping on her tail. Meanwhile, I'm like, in a schvitz, because the heat is pumping and I'm trapped in there.

When you spend all this time taking photos, storing items properly, etc, lowball offers are annoying and you take them personally. The post office is up the street from home and work, luckily, and it's not a hardship going there. I know people want their stuff quickly, because we're in the Amazon Prime age of 2-day shipping. When someone purchases one of my items (or more), I make sure to get that thing out the same day unless the post office is closed. I'm not running for you when you're offering me eighteen dollars on something I have fairly priced at fifty-eight dollars.

Speaking of pricing, I also spend time researching prices. A lot of my items I had on Tradesy first. When you input the brand and the condition it's in, Tradesy gives you a range of what items like it are selling for. I also look up items online to see what they're selling for. I'm like the damned Price is Right. I know what things cost from food to my clothes from 1998. Don't offer me eleven dollars for near perfect Nike's you know cost one hundred and ten from a retail store when I have them priced at twenty dollars. It may be what you want to pay, but it's insulting when I look in your closet and you have everything priced super high. You're not willing to be lowballed either. My advice as a buyer and seller is just to be respectful. If you look at any Poshmark seller's offer chart, you know what a fair offer is and what is lowballing.

All in all, it's been a really good experience so far. I can't believe my clothes from the nineties and early 2000's are selling but they are. Fifty four things have left my house, gone to new homes and I'm making a decent dollar that I need. I'm listing things like crazy which is really opening up room in all our closets. I would've never been motivated to clean out the closets so quickly. I have my bags of stuff separate that E and I give to homeless people on the street in NYC- this is all just....MORE stuff. This is decades worth of stuff. Even with the bags of stuff I've marked for the homeless, I still have almost SIX HUNDRED listings right now. I give some, make money on some. If Rita was still alive, I really could've gotten some "vintage" items like scrunchies, denim button-down shirts, and fanny packs....

I'm still learning the ins and outs. In the past two days I've gotten offers given to me on size six boots when I'm a nine and a half and on tops I'd never wear. I figured out that somehow I added them to a "bundle" (when someone wants to buy more than one item from the same seller they save on shipping cost this way) by mistake. The seller then has the opportunity to send someone a private offer on cost or shipping when someone adds one or more items to a bundle. Yeah, like I said, learning. XYZ in Florida has no idea I wouldn't wear five inch heels and must have clicked bundle instead of "share". 

If you want to buy or sell on Poshmark, you need to make an account. Whether you do it in your browser or you get the app, and you want to give me credit, you can't sign up through your Facebook account. You have to do it with your email address. It's so annoying, but when you do it via Facebook, there's no input area to give someone credit. When you sign up with my closet name for credit, you get five dollars to spend and I get five dollars if you ever make a purchase. It's a win-win. And I'm more than happy to give you all my tips and knowledge. They don't call me know-it-all for nothing! My closet name is tsdk74 - just copy and paste it right now.

Ok, writing this today took up my allotted writing time. Tomorrow my goal is something else. Totally unrelated to my new selling hobby. At least it's not an MLM!! (NEVER)