CARDS AND GIFTS AND BOOKS, OH, MY!

My bonanza day started yesterday afternoon, when I got home from work. One of the things in the mail was a totally unexpected birthday card from an internet friend. We share list space on one of my many lists, and have recently started corresponding on a fairly regular basis. We’ve found that we have a great deal in common, including the fact that our birthdays are in the same week, and I think quite highly of her. I thought it was so very kind and thoughtful of her to send me a card …and it was one of those surprises that take the breath away for a second, and make the heart sing!

Today, I received a huge gift order for the shop. The 2 huge boxes are sitting there, waiting for me to open them, and, even though I bought everything inside them, and know exactly what the boxes will contain, looking at them, and thinking about ripping into the boxes, drawing out each item, admiring it, deciding where it should go, and what should go next to it, feels like Christmas morning! Of course, I hope for positive “fan” (read customer) reactions, too …and I will be just as happy to see all those pretty things find good homes, because, then …I get to get more boxes of goodies!

I’ve noticed that same thrill of excitement when unpacking from a move. It doesn’t matter that I *packed* the box, or that it was carefully labeled (at least until the end of the packing process, when every box seems to be marked “misc”), I still find myself surprised by what I discover, sometimes, because I’ve either forgotten I had the item, or hadn’t looked at it in a while, or thought I’d lost it. The whole moving process, from packing to moving to unpacking *needs* all the bits and pieces of fun one can manage, too …because each move is harder, more onerous, and exhausting!

Then, I came home …and found …books!!!!!! My cooperating network library finally answered my pleas, and sent me both the Aubrey/Maturin series (at least some of it), *and* the Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullagh! Oh, my! I’m going to be a busy, happy girl! Anyone who wants me this weekend should search for me either in Ancient Rome (or on one of the many foreign battlefields), or on the high seas during the Napoleonic war! I’m not sure that a cell phone will be able to reach where I’m going …passenger pigeon, perhaps?
And it feels like summer! The sun has that certain “I’m serious about heat” feeling, and walking half a block reminds me that it really *is* different here, in the South …it’s hotter than I’m used to!

Eleanora