Packages!

When I was at summer camp, a bright moment in the day was when the P.A. would blare, "Packages!" If your name was called, that meant you got to go receive a package you'd received from someone On The Outside. You had to open it in front of the head counselors to make sure it wasn't a kilo of bubblegum, but then you got to savor your comic books and pad of purple lined stationery and maybe even a stuffed animal! (And yes, being a former camper makes me an awesome camper's mom, so Steph gets great packages from me two or three times during the summer. I send nail polish and books and new T-shirts and whatever other cool non-food stuff I can find.)

But I get no less thrill from seeing the UPS or FedEx truck pull up at my house now. A package? For me? Even if I know it's just a new lunchbox from L.L. Bean, it's still fun to get a package! And the best is a surprise package. Every now and then someone sends me a book from my Amazon wish list or a prize I won and then forgot about. Last week I got four—count 'em, four—packages:

1. My ancient first-gen iPod finally died. It still plays music OK, but it barely holds a charge for the 30 seconds it takes to get from the AC plug in the house to the cigarette-lighter plug in the car. I use it exclusively for listening to downloaded NPR podcasts on my Charlestown commute, so I didn't feel any need to replace it. However, the iTrip thingy I used doesn't work in the iPhone, so I ordered a new one. At first I panicked because when I plugged it in, I got an error message, but Nancy told me to ignore it, so I did, and now it works fine. Yay!

2. The book I edited last year for the Sierra Club is out, and my copy came! You can read all about Shooting in the Wild here. I had kind of forgotten that there would be photos, and I'd never seen them, so it was a real treat to get a glimpse of all those wildlife filmmakers I'd "met" in the manuscript.

3. You know those offers to join a club, and your first shipment is always something awesome, but after that ... not so much? Well, I nearly passed on this one, but I'm glad I gave it a go. The folks at Zagat have started a wine club, and the introductory offer was too good to refuse: a case of red wine for half price! Plus a set of 4 tasting glasses! And I didn't even realize it would also come with a little binder for tasting notes, with a page about each wine in the shipment. I got two bottles each of Monasterio de Santa Cruz (2007), Charles Smith Cabernet (2007), HJ Fabre Malbec (2008), Grande Réserve de Gassac (2008), The Optimist Shiraz Cabernet (2009), and Villa Farnia di Farnese (2008). All for $70, plus $20 shipping. In the future, I will be offered mixed cases (red or white or both) for full price ($140), which is still a bargain, depending on the wine, and I don't have to accept any shipment I don't want. If you're interested in trying out this half-price introductory offer, email me, because if I refer you and you join, I get another half-price case! Woo-hoo!

4. The photographer who did Steph's Bat Mitzvah found a new vendor who offers a more modern, less expensive alternative to the traditional formal album—more like a coffee table book than a real album. She wanted to have something to show prospective clients, so she ordered a sample from Steph's photos and made an extra for us too! I can't describe how beautiful this thing is. All Steph could say was, "It's like I'm a real model!" It's a huge book with full-page, full-color glossy photos. And you know what, they're not necessarily all the photos I would have chosen, but that was half the fun—just seeing what was there! And obviously the price was right (free). When I thanked her (profusely), the photographer said that she had just that morning shown it to a prospective client who said, "Wow! Everyone looks like they're having so much fun! That must have been a great party!" Yes, indeed, it was.

Comments

[jude]

i second that emotion (#4)

[Lori Z.]

Packages are a treat. I know the sound of the UPS/FedEx truck turning down our street like I know the coffee pot turning itself on in the morning.

Try selling your ipod on ebay or getting a new battery for it. We sold our first one for $50 and gave our second one to my cousin after replacing the battery--the cost being maybe $2 and countless youtube videos showing you how to do it.

[Elena]

I still can't figure out how the Zappos packages arrive the very next day--free of charge--even if you order at 10pm!