I had the hugely fun experience today of receiving a present in The Creative Exchange, an Instagram present swap organized by Sam Dunne of Dunne With Style. When you sign up for this exchange, you are assigned a person to secretly stalk on Instagram for a couple of weeks, and then you put together an assortment of small goodies for her and send it off. Meanwhile, someone else is doing the same thing for you. I had boatloads of fun getting to know my recipient via her feed and picking out treasures to send her—the package is due to arrive tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see how she likes her presents.
Well, today I received my package from a lovely woman named Karla, and I’m just blown away by the abundance and gorgeousness of her presents. She did a great job sussing me out via Instagram, because every single item made me squeal with delight. I mean, it’s all just perfect.
I just had to run to Periscope and do a show-and-tell video because the whole experience was so much fun. I was watching the replay just now and heard myself say something completely stupid. Like, so stupid I gasped. (This is not uncommon. I routinely wince at the memory of idiotic remarks I’ve made, but it’s eighty times worse watching it on video.)
I was describing how this experience—opening these presents that are so exactly what I would pick out for myself—reminded me of the time I visited my online friend Lisa and her family for the first time. We knew each other through my blog, and in fact years earlier, Lisa’s daughter, a very young girl named Annie (age eleven, I think), had left a comment that solved a sewing machine problem I was having. Such a gem. Well, years later, I was driving cross-country with the kids, and Lisa knew we’d be passing her town and invited us for dinner. And Annie, who was a teenager by then, surprised me with an amazing homemade dinner that was all my favorite foods. She had gleaned this information by reading my blog over the years and so thoughtfully put together a delicious feast for me of things she knew I would love! Amazing. I was blown away.
So, okay, in the Periscope I’m talking about how today’s experience—having Karla pick out such PERFECT presents for me based only on the hints about my tastes and hobbies she picked up from my Instagram—reminded me of Annie’s feast: this one other time I can think of that someone I hadn’t met in person gave me a wonderfully on point treat based on things I’d written.
Telling it like this, I think you get how I meant it. But what I SAID was: “I’ve only once in my life had an experience quite like this, where somebody gave me something that showed such thoughtfulness and such a grasp of what I love…”
Um, NOT WHAT I MEANT. 
I can think of MANY, MANY times in my life when someone gave me something that showed immense thoughtfulness and a grasp of what I love. Like my parents, for starters, who do that on a regular basis. Or how about my husband? The guy who once socked away a stack of my favorite Ritter Sport bars because we had to be separated for several months and he knew a day would come when I’d be in desperate need of a chocolate remedy. Or my kids, routinely. My sisters, my cousins, my in-laws. And a stream of friends come rushing to mind…Sarah H. giving me that Karl Larsson book as a going-away present because she knew I loved him. Erica and my other local friends, all the abundance of goodies in birthday baskets over the years. Alice, all the way back to the basket she brought to the hospital when Jane was sick, crammed full of the exact things it turned out we would desperately need. Lesley’s beautiful Small Meadow gifts over the years. Krissy, the Midori!!! I mean, the list goes on and on. I could keep this up for hours. Meals, presents, endless kindnesses. Thoughtfulness and a grasp of what I love. Over and over and over: all these cherished friends.
So, yeah, the key words missing from that sentence were “where somebody I’D NEVER MET IN PERSON gave me…”
Of course even as I write that, I’m thinking how inaccurate it too is, even with the addendum…we got a lot of thoughtful presents from strangers when Jane was ill. So maybe I should also add “such a grasp of what I love, picked up by things I posted on the internet.” LOL. I’m howling at myself now. Probably that’s not accurate either. The second I hit publish on this I’m going to think of ten times a kind reader sent me something sweet. Actually, I’m recalling instances already.
So basically I’m just a nitwit with the good fortune to be on the receiving end of a lot of thoughtful gestures. Despite what I may babble while live-streaming, I appreciate each and every one.
(But Karla, seriously, you nailed it.)
Anyway, here’s my show-and-tell scope…if you’ll just kind insert the appropriate mental edits to my boneheaded remarks!