A Package from Home

"Expect a package," my mother said over the phone, "You'll just flip when you see it."

I've gotten packages from my folks before, and they have run from old stories found in a closet to Spider-Man coloring books to a three-foot high cat carved out of an old fence post (Which is pretty cool, you have to admit). So I had no idea what my mom and dad were up to this time.

And the package arrived yesterday when the Lovely Bride was out of the house so I picked it up on the way to work. The package contained a number of things - some pictures of the flowers we sent Mom on her birthday. A map from National Geographic showing the Havasupai Indian Reservation (a tale for another time). My admittance form for Nursery School at the Bower Hill Community (Presbyterian) Church, and a note from my baptism from the minister (Rev. William Wright? The name springs to mind - though it's just signed "Bill") that reads (and I quote) "A day you will never forget! Be sure to enroll him in opera school as early as feasible!" I will assume from this that I was a "howler" but I never remember my folks using this fact against me in later life.

Oh, and a birthday present - a Steelers baseball cap. A LIGHT-UP Steelers baseball cap. Flip the switch, and fiberoptics flash in yellow, red, blue, and then all together to illuminate the Steeler's logo on the front.

I just love technology.

So I wore the cap to work. And when most of the young people in my office pod got in, I turned it on. And they thought it was AWESOME. And some people came over from the next office pod. And I turned it on. And THEY thought it was AWESOME. And so I kept springing my glowing hat on my co-workers for the rest of the day. And they thought it was hilarious. OK, one die-hard Seahawks fan in a pink mohawk threatened to bring in her own regalia, but in general, they thought it was way-cool, and that I have awesome, way-cool parents.

And they're right about that.

More later,