Care Packages from Home

Care packages from home are a great thing. They arrive very rarely, and only generally when solicited. I've gotten a couple of them lately, one solicited, and one unsolicited, and I want to take a moment to thank those who sent them.

About a week before Easter, I got an unexpected package. Inside the wrapping was some tin, and in all honesty, I can't remember what its original contents had been. When I received it, it contained both children's artwork and cookies - two different kinds of molasses cookies, to be exact. My friend Jenny had asked via Facebook whether I would eat raisins, and had offered no more information after I'd answered in the affirmative. She made me two kinds of molasses cookies - with and without raisins - and sent them. They had sort of a pumpkin spice quality to them, though I don't know how they were actually flavored. They were delicious; but, more than being delicious, they were a great reminder of my friendship with Jenny and her husband, and out many great adventures together as undergraduates.

The other great care package I received a couple of weeks ago was sent by Landlady. I needed two items: a Nobody Likes John Kerry T-shirt, and a copy of The Bear Went Over the Mountain by Lester W. Grau. Landlady shoved a bunch of additional stuff into the box, to include a can of Spam(?), a bar of soap that allegedly smells like beer, and several other sort of "hometown" items that I'll leave up to the imagination. In exchange, by the end of this week a box full of "FORIEGN STUFFFS" - the original exchange rate for sending the John Kerry T-shirt - will be winging its way back across the Atlantic to thank Landlady (and Mr. Landlady) for their generous contribution.

Brilliant.