love me a parcel

It’s not news.  Everything seems to be digital, virtual, immediate.  There are blessings in this.  I can keep in touch with family and friends from 5000 miles away, I can work remotely, I can get answers to all my questions on the internet, I don’t have to store my music cds or books anymore, and for christmas I didn’t have to set foot in a shop, I don’t even go to the grocery store anymore…ever.  Hy and I even had the first three months of our relationship ONLINE before having our first date.  But I can’t even remember the last time I ever wrote a letter…with pen and paper, or researched something in a library, and cyber hugs from those friends and family and tears over a cuppa aren’t quite the same. As the world continues on its digital journey I really really do hope that the mail delivery guy keeps his job.  I do love me a parcel! In Boston I had a ‘thing’ with my UPS man. Not that kind of thing…but next best. My house was right next to the playground where we spent nearly every afternoon of our lives.  I was known to leap over the fence in a single bound if the big brown truck slowed down near my house–which was often–ask my smokin’ credit card.  Eventually he just delivered to me at the playground, he knew where to seek me out. Bless his brown short clad soul. But here.  HERE it is a bright red truck.  The Parcel Force man.  And I got me a good one.  Cute in a very adult Beaver Cleaver sense of cute.  He knows exactly where to find me at what time of day and he waves to me on the street or in a shop.  He delivers my care packages from the states, delivered my maternity-clothing parcels, my new baby gear, my growing baby toys, my photographs, my camera gear, my everything.  Amazing to think how much he could actually know about my life.  I think in a previous life he could have  been one of Santa’s elves.  Perhaps he still is.  I always greet him with the cheesiest most enthusiastic grin as I am rubbing my palms together in anticipation.  He probably stands outside my stoop for a minute to hear that satisfying "rrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiip!" of paper and chuckles quietly.

I probably don’t have a point here.  I am prone to a bit of rambling.  It is just a comforting thought to know that even though I am so far away from family and friends and that I can hermit myself in my office for days on end and be quite productive in front of a computer screen, it is good to know that I do have a wee bit of ‘in-touch’ with the rest of my world and that there is still a real live person in the flesh handing it to me.  Now, if someday he could actually hand me those far away friends and family on my stoop for those hugs and tears…well, he would be Santa himself and I would have him in for a cuppa or two and make him my best friend forever.  If you ever see a parcel crazy woman chasing the big red van, don’t be alarmed, it’s probably me.

Cameron loves a parcel too…wrapping, tissue and ribbons oh my!  Enough to keep a little guy busy for a good hour–a gift in itself:

And the fantastic-plastic glory that came out of that last parcel from Rebecca, who knows how to give the best cyberhugs.  {Thank you!} Meet Lady Di.  My new toy:

Catch you all later.  d.