Me-ry Chr---m-s

Who ever said communicating with your friends was easy?

Right before Christmas, I received this in the mail:




It was, ostensibly, a Christmas card. Or, rather, it HAD been a Christmas card.

I stared at the pieces of gayly decorated strips of paper stock in front of me as I arranged them on the dining room table. There had been no envelope. Oh, wait, a strip of it was included, I think. But not the part with the return address. And not the part that told me who it was from. I felt bad for not immediately recognizing the handwriting, but, honestly, how many of you would know your friends' handwriting by sight these days?

I detected the words "Santa," "hat," and "gay," so I deduced maybe it was from a *gay* acquaintance. But then, many of my female friends would use "homo," so it was a toss-up.

The kicker, really was this:



No, no, let's zoom in closer:




I mean, it's nice to get an apology from th US Postal Service 'n' all, but I love the fact that they have the nerve to say that they are "aware" of how important my mail is so they are "forwarding it" in an "expeditious fashion." Because everyone wants scraps of mail that look like they'd been shredded or put through a wood chipper. As if, upon opening the envelope they sent it in, I would just say, delightedly, "I know! I'll make a semi-holiday themed mobile with these scraps of Christmas cheer!"

I was so close to just posting this around Xmas with a "Did you send this to me?" message blaring as the headline, but... well.... I got lazy. And the power went out Christmas Eve, and then work, and then I was tired, and... you know how that goes.

But then, like a delightful surprise, I got another card, and attached to it was the return address portion of the original ripped up card, and evidence that Mr. Jeff White--the mystery holiday well wisher--received strips of card as well.

So I pieced it all together, Encyclopedia Brown-style and voila!



Now we see my address and Jeff's. Well, you don't. We don't want you lining up at our doors for photographs and autographs.

Yay! Mystery solved. And I got TWO cards telling me Happy Holidays. Sometimes you only need mere scraps of sentiment from your friends to feel loved. And, if you're like me, you are totally satisfied with getting an anonymous scrap of a card and just thinking, "Well someone likes me! That's nice. I wish I knew who it was, but it doesn't matter, because someone likes me!"

Granted, I am sure there is more I could write that was not about a holiday that was nearly a month ago. How about those caucuses (or is that cauci?). How about that crazy Iran and their speedboats? How about the Golden Globes? Yeah, I didn't miss them either.

I am slow in getting 2008 going for anything. I need to bribe some folks to help on the visuals of the blog. I need to swim more. I need to stop playing video games. But, alas... I am off to New York next week, though. For work, but also for some fun drinkin' with Megan, Darren, Keith et al. I can't promise the best photos, but I'll try. If I don't find my coat soon, it'll be images of me holding myself like an orphan from a Dickens novel against the cold.