365: Awesome Discovery

Since my little boogie bear is feeling under the weather I decided to pick up some Thai food for dinner since it's the only thing she's been hungry for in days. While I was waiting for it to be ready I wandered into some local shops to check out the goods. I found a cool card/paper/gift store and at the very back of the store I saw this awesome rack of gift wrap that was made to look like various metropolitan areas. So cool! Next time I have to give a fancy gift I'm totally getting some of this!

365: Our Cups Runneth Over

My JC (that stands for Juniata College) girls sent us a surprise "congratulations on everything" gift. When we picked it up at the post office this morning the box was massive which meant A. we had no idea what could possibly be in it and B. we had to wait until we got home this evening to open it! It took all restraint to not stop on the side of the road and start exploring. I'm glad I waited :) 

The thoughtfulness and love that went in to selecting each and every piece that was innthis gift brought little tiny tears to my eyes. This is the second time this month I've gotten a gift like this from Juniata people (makes me kick myself for not taking a picture of my other gift montage--always picked out with such care). Any time someone cracks a joke about "Juanita" College I just look at them sadly and think about how their undergrad experience could never measure up to the one I had. Friends for life doesn't even begin to summarize it.

Love you girls.

Christmas in October

Alternative Title: America in a Box

My lovely partner Ange and dear sister Leslie put together the most wonderful care package in the world which I received on Saturday. L went back to the State for a few weeks and I had asked her if it would be ok if I had some of my peeps send her a shipment that she could check as excess luggage on her way back. Being the lovely person she is she said no problem. So I sent a list of goods and instructions for sending it to L and hoped and waited for several weeks. 

The wait was worth it.

Ange did all of the "easy" shopping, e.g. I needed more soap, hairspray, etc. Leslie was called in to help with the more difficult things which are mostly presents for my lovely extended host family here in Nigeria. Ange does not like to shop for things in which she has to make stylistic choices. So if I say "buy a necklace" it turns into a long list of questions about what kind of necklace should be bought. Luckily my lovely sister is like me and LOVES to shop and has impeccable taste so I knew she could handle that part of the list with ease. They arranged for a little shopping excursion and after a few phone calls of clarification finished up the hard part of the list. Ange had a few finishing touches to get and then she shipped it off across the country where it waited happily to be packed into a bag and dragged halfway around the world into my opening and eager arms. 

Since I had lots of gifts in my luggage I couldn't share in the immediate joy of ripping my stuff open. I took my bag to my room and had a private party. It was so much fun even by myself. Even stuff I knew was coming was fun to pull out and look at. It was like a little (or big really - 38 lbs. worth of stuff) box of America all wrapped up for me. I was of course super excited about all the new goodies for me but I was equally excited at looking all the stuff my sister and Ange picked out as gifts. I LOVE to give gifts and it was so hard to put them safely away to wait until I leave. I wanted to run screaming out of my room and say "LOOK WHAT I GOT FOR YOU MY LOVELY FRIENDS AND NIGERIAN FAMILY!" but that would make my leaving anti-climatic so I had to just enjoying them for a few minutes and then pack them away. It was so nice to see familiar American goods and things I haven't seen in months. I just wanted to roll around in everything.

Anyway, it was just what I needed to perk me up. Things have been generally not good at all here for the past few weeks so this was a shining piece of brightness in the dark pit of doom I've felt like I've been living in. So thank you babe and thank you sis for taking the time to send me some love. I needed it.