My Prize......

You know what's wonderful about a tough Monday at school, coming home in the drizzly rain, and knowing it's nine lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng weeks until we have another day off?

Getting a package in the mail.

I wrote last week about being a winner, and today my prize arrived in the mail, along with a very sweet note from its creator.

I apologize for the poor photography. (I seem to be doing a LOT of that lately.) My big camera is at school, and I didn't have the forethought (or energy or time or inclination or even the idea) to write my blog post when it was still daylight so the natural light would be better. I'm afraid this photo doesn't do the artwork justice. This creation will serve as a constant reminder of the wonderful friendships we can build even with people we have never seen (and may never see) in person.

On the back of the piece is a .... what? .... saying? .... quotation? .... inspiration? .... that I found  poignant. And as a card-carrying member of the American Association of Professional Cynics, I don't throw words like "poignant" around lightly. Unless I'm being sarcastic. And in this case I'm not.

She signed the piece with her real, live, birth certificate name, too, but I cut that out of the picture just in case she wants to preserve her privacy. (It's a precarious tightrope we walk in the blogging world sometimes, isn't it?)

Is it wrong to use "precarious" and "tightrope" together? Is it redundant? If so, I apologize.

Thanks again to the blogger who held this giveaway. Drop by her blog and leave a kind word on my behalf. Or leave a kind word on your own behalf. I'm unselfish that way.

I Am A Winner.........

For the first time ever, I have won something in a blog giveaway. This goes beyond the time that Hubby won a new Harley and gave it to me. It even goes beyond my winning a motorcycle the very next year.

My relatively new blogging pal Elena had a little giveaway contest, and I won! I also recently discovered (only because it was in front of my face the whole time) that Elena is the one from whom I shamelessly stole the idea for my 50 Things to Do list. She has a similar list in her sidebar of things to do before her birthday.

When I emailed her to give her my address so she could mail my prize, she said she loved my name. Said it sounded like poetry.

Poetry.

My name. 

That is such a sweet thing to say. It was only in adulthood that I came to grips with having an unusual name that people can't pronounce when they see it or spell when they hear it. I have finally embraced the name (did I have any other choice?), but to hear someone say it sounds like poetry is pretty special.

Sometimes a small thing happens and provides a pick-me-up that I wasn't even aware I needed until it happened. Such is the case with Elena's prize and her sweet remarks. I will hang her creation up at school, where it will remind me not only of Elena's kindness, but of the need to spread that sort of kindness myself. I can't wait for the package to arrive.