Far, Far Away

When I was a kid, every afternoon on the public broadcast station there was a show geared to school-aged children called Zoom. It was an innovative program that showcased all the cast as kids my age doing experiments, reading stories, generally learning about all manner of things. At the very end of each episode there was always a call for the pen-pal program that Zoom sponsored. I watched and fretted and wondered what I would say and eventually, I sent in my name and address to be paired up with someone. I must admit, at the ripe age of nine, I was a bit cynical that I would end up with a pen-pal from Kansas, instead of some far off land as I had hoped.

I waited for what seemed like ages and I finally received my packet of information for a little girl in... (Insert drum roll here) Surrey, England! Her name was Mica and she was actually of East Indian decent. We exchanged letters and little gifts and we kept this up right until she headed out to "university". She was going to study medicine and informed me that our letters would probably stop there as she was anticipating crushing hours of study. I was sad, but I got it. Med school was way over my academic head and I could only imagine the hours she would be chained to her desk.

I still remember the incredible surge of excitement I would get when a letter would come in the mail with all those funny postmarks and interesting stamps of Queen 'Liz... I saved them well into my twenties. Come to think of it, they may be in a box underneath the house somewhere.

Blogging has brought back a lot of those wonderful memories for me. I can connect with people from all over the globe and I can learn about all manner of interesting cultures and traditions. It speaks to the excited kid in me. And just yesterday, I have to tell you, I did a very juvenile little "happy-dance" in my dining room as I brought in the box that was waiting so patiently in my oversized mail box from Saturday. (Yes, I actually left the box all alone in my mail box for TWO days before I retrieved it...Urg!) I have a blog-friend, not to be confused with boy-friend, who lives in Garrods Hill, England (I think that is how I am supposed to read the return post), and she sent me the winnings from her blogiversary contest she held earlier this month! It was the same excitement I felt as a little girl getting to open a package from so far away...

Ok, yes, I am a complete dork! The package contained the following:
Lovely little babushka-doll-paper wrapped around each gift and a willowy whisp of a girl card with a hand-written sentiment from my friend...

And inside the packages, viola!

As I sit here this morning, enjoying my coffee in my new mug, lovely union jack pennants draped invitingly around its perimeter, I wonder where Mica is. I wonder how she fared in the grueling throngs of med-school students and if she ever recalls the awkward over-enthusiastic pen-pal from Colorado that used to ask her all manner of inane questions.

I am so very thankful and awed by the people that I have met here in the blogiverse. You have made me feel welcome, unique, distinctly inept at times with your amazing photog skills and yet, always inspired to be more. It is with this swelling feeling of more that I leave you today. What might you do to make someone's day a little more?