Mail Bag

All right, I got two separate packages in just recently.

The first is from Lauren at Adopt A US Soldier. My first meeting with Lauren is an interesting story. It begins like most of my stories--on the Internet. At the time, I was in college and posting on what is now the largest (and certainly most mischievous) college message board in the US. Lauren was what you might call an "internet troll", often making fun of people. But she was so rip-roaringly hilarious (and anonymous) that I had to meet her in person.

As it turns out, she had just turned 22 and was celebrating her birthday at a local bar near our college. It was quite a remarkable party, as it seems that half the people on the website came out and literally packed the bar to see who had been making fun of them for so long.

Lauren now volunteers at Adopt A US Soldier, and just sent a care package. Let's see what she sent:

Also in this box were several packs of chocolate bars (which got snatched up by a lot of people).

This is an example of a good care package for a few reasons:

1. Toothpaste and floss are always good, but the Gold Bond medicated powder is a must, especially when the hot season rolls around. It's not only good for preventing blisters and athlete's foot, but also a few other moisture-related issues men get in the warm months. Sadly enough, it seems that the local PX is almost always sold out of Gold Bond and other foot care products, but will always have plenty of Crock Pots for sale. I have no idea who buys a Crock Pot in Iraq, especially because no one can cook in the housing units, but they sell Crock Pots.
2. Flavored drink mix (sugar free). This is also a must when the summer months come around, as we drink lots of water, and having a powdered drink mix makes the water a little more palatable, plus it provides some electrolytes.

It seems that Lauren, always the one for a good joke, decided to put in a little humor for the people at US Customs with the packing list:

"Package Contains: Snacks, Lipstick, Nail Polish, Duct Tape"

Also arriving in the mail was a care package from Sarah in Syracuse (hey, that almost rhymes). Let's take a look:


Aha! Looks like Sarah remembered my penchant for healthy snacks and added some jerkey snacks, cliff bars and fruit snacks--these I horded for myself. She also added in a pair of decent flip-flops, as my $.99 flip-flops performed like, well, $.99 flip-flops, adding the note "Do you know how hard it was to find flip-flops in Syracuse, NY in November?!"

This package was just as good as Lauren's, but there was one thing that put it ahead of Lauren's package. That was this:




All in all, I reveled in everyone's jealousy over the Darth Vader figurine. Or at least I humored myself and pretended to revel in everyone's jealousy. Don't judge me.