Shaddup Already!
2005-04-29
Glitz
Muffin told me she was going to send me some really cool flower beads, and send she did. She did warn me that it would be a suspicious looking package, to which I responded that next to checks, suspicious looking packages were my favorite things to get in the mailbox.Well, I got both today! Whoo-hoo! The check was actually a money order for two of my ceramic rats, but this entry is not about those, it's about really cool beadie people :o)
Okay, so I opened my tiny mailbox that is grouped with a bunch of other tiny mailboxes in a government issued mailbox apartment house of sorts and there was THE KEY.
Let me explain for those of you who don't have mailbox apartments, each homeowner is given a tiny little box to collect their mail. Next to the single apartments are the spacious loft boxes. There are two of them. This is where packages that are too big to fit in the single room box are put.
I have a little routine that I follow for receiving my mail. I think it stems from a time when, if I got mail, it was always good. Somehow the thrill of having mail addressed to me hasn't worn off, even though I know it's mostly requests for my hard-earned money. Anyway, as I walk to my box, I scan the front of the spacious loft boxes for THE KEYS. If both of THE KEYS are still in the boxes, I know there is no chance that I have a package that day. However, if one of THE KEYS is not in it's lock, I know that there is a chance that THE KEY might be in my little hovel of a mailbox.
So when I see THE KEY is not in one of the spacious loft boxes, I slowly open my little single efficiency box, hoping to see THE KEY waiting for me. Usually it isn't.
Today, THE KEY was there, for me, all for me. And I knew it meant one thing--a suspicious looking package.
I put THE KEY in the snazzy loft box and found my package. Life is good. As I carried it to my house, I checked for ticking. That is part of the fun of getting a suspicious looking package, after all. When I decided that it wasn't an explosive, I opened the oversized, plump envelope. I used scissors to do this because Muffin, being a girl after my own heart, taped down the flap. I was getting so frustrated that all that stood between me and flower beads was a little piece of tape that I couldn't remove, so I grabbed my scissors and cut away the top.
I opened that and found a cute little homefashioned cardboard sleeping bag for the beads. I again had to smile because it reminded me so much of a package I recently wrapped up for an eBay sale. The guy who gets the book he bought is gonna either laugh or cry when he gets my package. That is, if he can ever get through the tape :o)
Anyway, I got the package open and there were beads, everywhere! It was beading nirvana. To top it off, there were sequins too! Shiny things! Pretty, little shiny things! I had died and gone to heaven (or a reasonable facsimile).
Muffin, my compatriot in beading, sent me bead flowers, yes, but she also sent me fish! She sent me these little teapots! She sent me laser cut sequins! I have never in my life seen laser cut sequins. They are so shiny! They are dazzling in their simplistic beauty. You can turn them from side to side and see little rainbows of light everywhere! I can't buy things like this at my local craft store. I am the luckiest person alive. I have shiny things! Thank you, Muffin, thank you!
This reminds me of a little story about moi as a smallish child. I loved swimming as a kid and, fortunately for me, my parents believed in taking vacations near natural sources of water. This meant many fun-filled hours of diving beneath cold, fresh water to retrieve treasures that were dropped there by previous swimmers. It also meant having little fish bite at my toes. Man, those were the good old days.
Getting back on track, the "chicken of the sea" commercials for tuna were at their height of popularity at this time as well.
I remember this one time where I kept diving into the reddish, clay-colored water of north FL/south GA and pulling up shiny treasure after shiny treasure. I kept bringing them over to show my mom and have her hold them for me while I went back to my treasure hunting. On probably the 203rd trip over to mom I remember saying:
"Mom, I'm like the raccoon of the sea!"
I knew raccoons were attracted to shiny things, so it made sense to me. I was "swimming like a fish" (according to my mom) and picking up shiny things like a raccoon.
Mom, as supportive as she was, didn't really seem to appreciate my young genius. Ah well, I was probably dazzling her all the time with my witticisms that this one little item slipped past her.
Anyway, the point being, I still love SHINY THINGS!
