Monday, January 11, 2010

The Best Christmas Present EVER!

I had something really amazing happen to me last week.
I was the recipient of a random act of kindness,
of amazing generosity,
of the epitome of Christian love.

If you have had a blog for awhile, you know that you develop a group of regular readers, and sometimes those readers, in the process of their daily lives, come across things that speak your name...and on a whim you'll get (very cool) gifts in the mail.
I've both received gifts, and I've sent gifts, and I call some of these readers friends, even though we haven't met yet.

But this goes way beyond that.

You see, Ben emailed me, saying he had a Christmas present for me.
Huh?
Wow, that's generous.
Okay.
Since he loves photography, I just assumed it was one of his photographs (and that would have really been awesome).
I even dreamt one night that he knit me a sweater, because we talked about knitting.

So I drove to the post office on Tuesday, and was shocked when the employee there handed me a big box.
Um, with a $35 shipping label.
Plus insurance and delivery confirmation, so it cost even more to mail.
Holy cow.

Hmmm...that's not a photograph.

Excitedly, since I can never wait, I rushed outside, stood beside the open door of my car, and I ripped the tape off the box.
I opened the box, and literally said out loud, "What?! Whaaaa?! Oh my God!".
I made a mini scene out there in the parking lot.

This is what he sent:

Are you kidding me?
Seriously, are you KIDDING me?

Ben is a computer expert, and he knows that the computer I have at home is old old old and so slow that it takes me at least three times longer to do things than it would with a normal computer.
My computer at home doesn't even have basic stuff like Word on it.
It's actually worse than anyone can probably imagine.

Because I'm a house sitter, it would make so much more sense to have my own computer that's portable, versus having to use my clients'.
So not only is this a better computer than the one I have, it's way more practical too.
I am giddy. My dad would have said "tickled pink" :)

The computer has goodies like Microsoft Office installed, and it even has some photo-editing software.

Wow.
I immediately called my friend Tracie and cried.
Then I called my friend Mike, and excitedly, in a high-pitched voice, told him of this awesomeness (Mike in another generous friend, so this all makes sense to him).

Today I called my satellite company to get DSL instead of the dreaded dial-up I currently have.
They'll be hooking it up soon.

Thank you Ben. What a Godsend.

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8 Comments:

Blogger Nancy said...

Fantastic news! Thank you, Ben for renewing my faith in the kindness of others.

2:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ben, you completely rock guy. This is an incredible gift and such a wonderful Christmas thought. Barb, you have blessed so many people through your blogging, this is a just dessert.

4:03 PM  
Blogger Sue Schmidt said...

Yay for you Barb! You have such a lovely heart......and what goes around comes around! Ben, thank you for being sooooo kind to Barb!

4:30 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

What a lovely and generous friend! Barb I CAN NOT BELIEVE that you are still using dial-up. You must have the patience of a saint!

4:41 PM  
Blogger Kiraph said...

Wow! Lucky girl! Enjoy your new laptop!

7:09 PM  
Blogger Heidi said...

Wow, that's amazingly generous. I'm sure it will come back to him someday. Enjoy your new computer!

9:10 PM  
Blogger Andrea said...

Wow! That is so great!

5:10 AM  
Blogger Gina E. said...

(a)I think he wants to marry you...or (b) he is wealthy!
Seriously though Barb, as the other commenters have said here, you've brought a lot of fun and joy to many people through your blog, so you deserve any goodies coming your way. But by any standards it is an incredibly generous gift to a fellow blogger!

7:13 AM  

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