11 December 2007

Royal Mail, Par Avion

My dear wife loves gifts. A gift can be defined traditionally as a commercial or hand-made product placed in a container of any shape or material and wrapped in decorative paper (or not); and, just as important, the simpler things in life, such as “snail mail,” e-mail, activity directed toward her on Facebook or any social interaction. These are all gifts, and she lives for these exchanges — give and take.

She is the key holder to our mailbox. She comes home from work and, as according to her daily rituals, enters our home with the daily mail, parsing the keepers from the junk and hers and mine. The other day, she walked in announcing a package that had come for me, but something appeared amiss.

A large envelope came to me inside another large USPS envelope. Hand-written on the original envelope was my name and address in green marker, and stamped as coming from the U.K.(that’s United Kingdom, not University of Kentucky).

Add to that no return address, and even stranger, nothing inside.

I have no idea who this came from, and no idea what was ever inside. I don’t recall expecting anything coming the U.K. And even so, I’m concerned I’m missing out on something really wonderful. My best guess is that, perhaps, it was a type-specimen book. Mystery unsolved.

Moving, Par Terre

I’ll probably write more on this later, but we started looking for a new apartment and ended up buying a house. The deal is not yet officially done, but if and when, we’ll be homeowners come January. We’re excited. Meanwhile: projects, wedding anniversary, Christmas, and new year. And then, possibly, moving. Mercy!