I saw that my gift shipped December 12th and I checked the tracking obsessively. I am staying in Hawaii and I get worried because shipping is always dicey. I was bummed out when I got home Saturday and discovered I had missed the delivery and USPS didn’t leave a delivery slip. Drat!

I checked this morning and noticed that instead of attempting to redeliver, there was an error message on my package. I called the USPS office nearby and asked if the package was there. A guy answered the phone and after taking down the tracking information, went to look for it.

After waiting a bit, he got back on the line and asked, “Hey. . .so what exactly is your name?” I told him my first name and this is the conversation we had: USPS Guy: “Well, is there. . .ANOTHER name you might have?” Me: “Uh. . .well. . .I mean it could be under yaariana?” USPS Guy:“Is that your real name?” Me: “Not. . .exactly. It’s like a nickname.” USPS Guy:“Oh. Well that’s a pretty weird nickname.” Me: “So. . .does that mean the package is there?” USPS Guy: “Nope. We sent it back. It went to the wrong address.” Me: “Oh no! Ok. I understand. Thanks for looking. I really appreciate it.” USPS Guy: laughs “What kind of name is this y-a-a-r-i-a-n-a. . .?(Spelling it out to me) Me: “Wait. . .does that mean you have it?!” USPS Guy: “Depends. Why are you called “yaariana”?” Me: “Well, man. . .have you ever heard of a website called Reddit?”

After explaining Secret Santa and him making fun of me a little, he assured me he DID in fact have my package and that I could come and pick it up.

My Secret Santa is awesome! He looked through my Amazon wishlist and got me a book by my favorite author, Ha Jin. This is fantastic because I just got out of school and I’ve been looking for something new to read. I’m starting it tonight!

What’s more, he also picked out a movie that goes along with the theme of the book that I’ve never seen before called The Flowers of War. It has the delicious Christian Bale in it and I’m SUPER excited to see it!

Thank you, Secret Santa! :D