I got home late last Friday night (4 days ago now), and wedged into my mailbox was a massive package with my name and a return address somewhere in LA, California.

The next morning when I got up (and by "morning" I mean 1PM) I was really conflicted. I couldn't decide whether to open my package and I didn't know what Reddit's SS convention was, so I flipped a coin: it was tails ("don't open") but I realized I was desperately looking for it to be heads, so I got the box anyway and found my scissors.

When I opened the box I saw everything was kinda jumbled from shipping, but I tried to ignore everything once I saw the note (some things, though, I couldn't ignore).

My SS's note was really nice to read. The advice from an "Old", since they referred to their self as such, is pretty invaluable to me, but more on that at the end...

Since I'd seen the "Craft Coffee" box, I opened that first. Inside was a selection of 3 (awesome) imported roasts that had stats printed on the package, like a Baseball card would, and an index card (not shown) with extended descriptions of how each roast came to be. Each one was a creative writing lesson, too.

Under some of the packing paper was a brand new mug with a badass crocodile in it! I got kinda ticked that I'd already decided to make a cup of coffee and couldn't use the creature cup, but flash-forward to Sunday and I was having a pretty fantastic time seeing a reptile in my morning blend.

What I could enjoy though, was a Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe Joe--my Secret Santa shipped peppermint heroine to me. I managed to eat half the box while I finished with the remaining gifts.

Next was a bluetooth to AUX-out adapter, so that I could add bluetooth to any speaker I have :) One of my apartmentmates at college brought along a surround-sound speaker system and set it up in our common room, and we use it to play music maybe 6 of 7 days a week. We won't have to plug in our phones anymore, which is excellent.

In a plain, unassuming white box was a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 headset. I've never played a COD game, but for the week before I'd been telecommuting for work and been wishing I'd had a headset for when I needed to call someone--I no longer have a headset on my wishlist :)

The last thing in the box was a coffee recipe (and theory?) book, and when I opened to a random page I got a psych lesson about why people get home espresso machines (they think it'd be cheaper to make espresso drinks at home, but they're wrong). I thought it was going to be some weird coffee table book, but there's info about growing coffee, bean anatomy, roasting processes--I'm pretty into /r/coffee stuff.

My unnamed SS hit pretty much everything about me in one awesome Christmas bundle, and I'm so happy :) It's KILLING ME that I don't have a name, but in response to their note: there's way more to these two trips, but 6 years ago I went to Japan as a Student Ambassador, and 3 years ago I went to Peru and helped out at an orphanage in Cusco. Both were two of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I couldn't agree more with the advice for everyone to travel as early as possible :) If I hadn't have already seen a Wonder of the Ancient World on a day-trip and climbed above the clouds on Mt. Fuji I could see how easy it would be to dismiss an "unsolicited word of advice," but that's some of the most important advice someone could receive.

I really, really hope my SS gives me some way to contact them, because I still have a book's worth to say to them. I just realized I do have their return address though, and "Old" people love thank-you notes :)