When was the last time you got a surprise in the mail?

I got a payment from an insurance company, $600 I didn’t know was coming.

Never as big a surprise as this guy got from UPS.

Happy belated birthday dear friend!

I ordered a trash bin online. What showed up was this cute, pink electronic toy that the SO jokingly (I hope) begged to keep. I would have bought him the same one as a gift, but it was expensive. It was good for a laugh though. That man loves gadgets.

I received a book written by a friend in France. I hadn’t been in contact with him for several years and it was a total surprise.

A month or so ago I received a notification of a pension that I either never knew I had or paid no attention to. A past employer wants to send me money every month. I checked it out—it’s genuine. The amount isn’t very great, but it’s nice all the same. How about that?

Three days ago I got a packet of freshly harvested morning glory seeds from @coloma. They were in a nice box that had held “The Laughing Cow” cheese.

An hour ago I stripped the seed pods from my sweet peas for her. I will add also seeds from my lettuce leaf poppies, CA. poppies (coals to Newcastle), mallow and whatever else I can find.

I too just got an unexpected little check from the settlement of my mother’s estate after the taxes had been paid. I can have my fields brushhogged and my skylights de-mildewed.

The last real surprise was a couple months ago, when I received a letter from a long-lost cousin telling me my grandmother had died. Despite the fact that I was in ongoing contact with her for most of my life and had written to her, and she obviously had my address, for some reason they couldn’t “find me” until after she had died.

A month ago, for my birthday, I got a package from one of my dearest friends who lives in Texas. She had asked me for my new address and said that she was sending me a little something in the mail, but what I got was more than just a “little something.” It was a relatively big box, the outside of which was fully decorated with stickers, and it contained a book that I had been wanting to read and almost purchased the previous day but ended up putting back on the shelf I had to talk myself out of buying it because I’m on a tight budget right now, a box with sayings on stickers from famous writers, a Disney birthday princess pin (we met while interning at Disney World almost 3 years ago, so it has a special meaning), and the most amazing journal book I’ve ever seen (in fact, it’s so nice that I can’t even bring myself to write in it!! haha) with a really nice pen, too. Totally blew me away, but then again, that’s just the kind of friend she is :)

I got a $450 dental bill that I wasn’t expecting and won’t be able to pay off for months… The bad kind of postal surprise!

The best postal surprise I’ve gotten recently, though, was a first-edition of a book that a teacher of mine just published. I helped her with a little research for it, and she thanked me in the acknowledgements and signed the book for me! I was smiling all day.