Random Act of Kindness

Today the mail came and a box was left on the doorstep for me.

I opened it and, beautifully packaged, were TWENTY FIVE little bottles of the most wonderful fragrances -- judged so by those who know, my friends on the frag board who earlier this year had voted for the Top25 Fragrances of 2004.

I hadn't earned these wonderful fragrances. They were a gift from the sky.

Or, more accurately, a gift from Deb -- who had laboriously collected the bottles of fragrance, some of them really difficult to obtain (such as the perfumes that are only purchasable in Paris, apparently when the moon is full and Serge is in a benevolent mood).

Having located and obtained these fragrances, she then took pipette in hand and neatly decanted TWENTY FIVE fragrances into the smaller bottles, drop by precious drop.

Each were hand labeled and then carefully, carefully sorted and bubblewrapped, placed in beautiful boxes and mailed at no small expense.

Let me tell you a bit about Deb. She's a woman who loves, loves, loves her husband. (And I think he must be an awfully nice guy. For a Yankee fan.) She works at a job that occasionally drives her crazy. She has a beautiful daughter -- who, to me, looks a lot like her Dad -- and a wonderful son -- with a mischievous face -- who is the light of her life.

She -- with my assistance -- made a TERRIBLE cake that apparently no one but the little one would touch. And I'm still afraid that's because of all the alcohol in fermented fruit that took FOREVER to prepare. And she only teased me unmercifully for this failure for a little while.

She is a eBay master. Do not mess with her. She is famous for snagging her prey. She has an unequivocal sense of fairness and can't stand cheating. Even if it means eBay pricing.

And she's got a temper. And she doesn't mince words. And she likes days off. A lot. And talking to her kids. And watching baseball with her husband. Well, he watches and she's on the Internet.

And she took time out of a full life to send me this wonderful gift. Thank you, D.