A New Friend From An Old Friend

I began November with library volunteering. Organized the children's DVDs, which needed it badly. They were mostly either Thomas the Tank Engine, The Wiggles, Dora The Explorer, Angelina Ballerina, or Bob The Builder, with a few SpongeBob, Disney DVDs, and new releases thrown in. I also took out some more Disney comics, another Calvin and Hobbes, and two of the Robin Paige Kathryn and Lord Charles Sheridan books, Death At Dartmoor and Death at Epison Downs (they didn't have any of the earlier ones before they were married).

I had not one, but two packages waiting for me when I got home. The first one was, thank goodness, my Verizon modem. I got it hooked up and am now on Verizon Online. I'll cancel NetZero and Netscape tomorrow.

The second package was far more of a surprise. It came from my good friends Linda and James Young in Georgia. I hadn't been expecting anything from them, though I frequently read Linda's wonderful blogs. There were several wrapped presents in the box. According to Linda's note, one was a belated birthday present. I opened it to reveal the book The Making of Casablanca, by Aljean Harmetz. I love that book! I used to read the copy at the Cape May City Library all the time, but I hadn't seen it since I moved out of my mom and stepdad's house.

There were two other presents Linda said not to open until after Thanksgiving and St. Nicholas' Day on December 6th, so I put them in the back room for now. (I swear I didn't open them, Linda!) The most intriguing package, though, came in cute brown and white polka-dot tissue paper. I suspected I knew what it held, and I was right - one of Linda's newest addictions, a WebKinz! A handsome, fuzzy, solemn black bear stared up at me. I liked him right away and named him Miles, after pilgrim Captain Miles Standish. (He IS the Pet of the Month for November!)

WebKinz are stuffed animals who come with codes that you can type into their website. You create your own "virtual pet," a kind of cuter, more fun Internet variation on the Tamagotchi craze of the late 90s. You have to feed them and do things to make them happy and buy them clothes, toys, books, and furniture. Though I did buy Miles some more sensible t-shirts and polos, I saw an uber-cool bomber jacket and instantly though, "this handsome bear deserves nothing less!" You can earn points to buy more food and items buy playing games. I got pretty good at some of the Arcade games, especially the first "Cash Cow" (a variation on Yoshi's Cookies) and the second Candy game. I'll mess with the cards tomorrow.

(The non-virtual Miles is on my desk, keeping an eye on Proud Heart Cat, Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, and the Card Captor Sakura figure.)

I'm so glad to have friends like Linda and Lauren! Lauren and I worked on the newest role-play story tonight. Don't expect to see it for a while, though. We're doing it for November's NaNoWrite and need to get up to 50,000 words before the end of the month!

I also picked up a few desperately needed extra hours tomorrow, 4:30 to 8:30. I would have ended up at the Acme sometime to pick up my paycheck anyway. I'll just make a really, really quick bank trip on Saturday morning.