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

THIS AND THAT

I’ve been very lax. I had intended to write something each day …and got distracted, so will try again, with a jumble of things that have interested or impressed me over the last week or so.

First, I was coming home from work one day, and to my amazement, heard a mockingbird! In the city! In Atlanta! I stopped still in my tracks, right there beside the trash dumpster near my apartment building, and listened avidly, with a huge smile on my face. The irony of standing there, next to the trash, and hearing that wonderful, exuberant song didn’t escape me, but, when I lived in Northern VA, mockingbirds were a part of each year’s Spring, and a welcome, wonderful part. Too. Sometimes one would even awaken me around 2 or 3 in the morning, bless his heart (most of the songsters in the bird world are male, if not all of them), and, despite the interrupted sleep, the need to get up early the next day and all that, I would lie there, smiling, reveling in that fluid glory.

I *never* hear bird song here, so this was one of those tiny miracles which give me hope that the Universe isn’t an unfailingly unfriendly place, after all. Sometimes one finds a mockingbird in the center of a big city, and sometimes, he sings!

I’ve discovered a new and wonderful mailing list! Now …I blush to admit this, but, I am an email list junkie. The lists have to be on subjects that interest me, and I don’t read every post on every list, in fact, I use most of my recipe lists like a ready reference (and yes, I have lots of recipe sites bookmarked, too). This means that I really do know what I like, and, usually, I’ll stay on a list for a while, and if it doesn’t suit, I quietly, and without comment, leave. Well! It so happens that I love sea stories, and have read and loved the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin series (20 books in all), from which Master and Commander was taken and made into a movie. That is a movie I’ve never seen, but will be amending *that* lack also, fairly soon, I think. At any rate, a friend from yet another list, this one on the life and times of Mary Stuart, recommended the Gunroom to me. I joined, I read, I laughed, I even got misty eyed once …and dumped the whole idea of a “getting to know you before I start participating” policy I’ve developed. It’s absolutely wonderful; with well-written, intelligent, thoughtful, funny ladies and gentlemen who have wide ranging interests, an amazing depth of knowledge on an astounding array of subjects, and can disagree courteously! Topics range widely, though the Aubrey/Maturin series is the pole star for the list, and we always come back to it, or touch it as we pass. True, it’s a *very* chatty list …we can generate 100 posts a day, and often do...but what posts!

Finally, happy Mother’s Day to all mothers …of children, pets, plants, books, or anything else! I hope someone pampers you a bit tomorrow, and I hope someone tells you that you are dearly loved. Just in case there is no one to do that,

I love you!

Eleanora