"I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was."

- Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I think I'm falling in love with my mailbox.* And, okay, my inbox deserves some credit, too.

So, I've been experiencing about nine different types of emotions all at once lately (I attribute this to being so grossly overwhelmed by my job in addition to a gazillion crazy things going on in general, plus the time of year. I love the fall -- it's always been my favorite season -- but it's hard to reconcile my love of the fall with all the memories of two years ago....)

Every day last week, when my alarm went off, I would drag myself out of bed with the consolation that I only had to get through X more days until my vacation. I have never needed a vacation so badly in my working life, which is saying something when you consider that I've been working since I was 15.

So, Monday was my last work day before FOUR VACATION DAYS (during which I have no specific plans, other than to try to unknot my brain a little). It was a tricky day - I spent most of it training some new staff, then answering A LOT of emails, wrapping up a couple of projects, etc.

Just after noon, my incredible friend Daniel sent me an email that said simply: "just a quick reminder that you are loved and beautiful." (This is one of the many reasons I adore Daniel - he seems to always KNOW when I need stuff like this. Not because I've said anything. He just knows. Like the time he sent me a random text to "Keep going" on my book THE SAME DAY I'd gotten interest from an agent, but before he'd heard anything about that.)

Yesterday was my first day off. I spent most of it just lounging around the apartment. When I finally went out to run some errands, I checked the mail. The usual junk mail, a statement from my pathetic little IRA, and a card from my derby wife. It was one of those "just because" notes she sometimes sends me but it wasn't just a "hey, I was thinking of you" note -- it was a "hey, do you know how awesome you are?" note. Again, impeccably timed.

And then today, I slept until almost noon, because my mom was right when she used to say I could "reverse my days and nights" without even trying as soon as I had any time off. I finally just went to check the mail and there was a package from Sock Dreams. I order from them a lot, but I was pretty sure I didn't remember having placed an order recently. And then I opened the package. They were cupcake socks from my friend the amazing vegan cupcake maker. So THAT was why she messaged me for my mailing address over the weekend....

It is mind boggling to think that randomly these three people (who do not know each other and who live in three different states) just happened to time things so well to make me feel loved and special exactly when I needed it. And yet, that's exactly what happened.

I've got two more days off, so maybe this is a good time to send some mail to people who are important to me, to thank them for being who they are and for being in this world. Yay for mail and for remembering to be awesome....


* I should probably be more careful about making statements like this. Like, when we got the new color printer at work that prints ON BOTH SIDES and prints super fast and I said, "I want to have the printer's babies" and our Hepatitis Coordinator looked at me very strangely (as if I meant it literally). For the record, I do not ACTUALLY want to have babies with the printer at work and I am not TRULY falling in love with my mailbox. Geez.