Let's TRY to make life a surprise party this week!

Merry September 8th! Happy Saturday! Welcome to September's Second Try Day, everybody!

It's me, KJ!  I have a little cottage industry called The Dreamy Giraffe and document all of the adventures and misadventures my Dreamy Giraffe & I have here.  And I'm back with you to try, try again, as they say!

This past Tuesday, I was lying on my bed (I have a studio, but lying on my bed is my favorite place to paint), working on a commissioned piece (I wish I could share more details, because I really am so proud of how this one turned out, but it's a surprise gift for a wedding so I gotta keep it under wraps for a l'il while longer) and watching Mission: Man Band (yep, I admit it shamelessly -- I'll even go as far as admitting that in my sordid past, I've seen two of those fellas in concert, but I won't tell you which two) (unless you ask nicely)...where was I?

Oh, yes, I was on my bed, painting, and watching embarrassing reality t.v., when a car horn honked about three or four times in my yard.  It was not, in fact, the Embarrassing Reality Television Watching Prevention Committee or the People Against Painting On Beds Action Group -- it was my mail lady!

She was armed with the usual mail type stuff -- a bill or two (or five), a couple of pre-approved offers from credit card companies and a nice-sized box from Canada -- wait a second -- a nice-sized box from where?

I don't know about you, but I tend to run out of every single supply at once -- it's like I wake up one morning and someone has robbed me blind of paper, paint, boxes, packaging tape, labels, sleeves for prints, canvases, pencils and, oh, yeah, toothpaste and shampoo, too.  Or else all those things have sprouted arms and legs and have run away together to start their own little travelling supply circus.  Or...maybe...just maybe...I managed to serendipitiously use the last of everything, all at once?

Anyway, last week was that week for me, so I had ordered quite a bit and was expecting several packages -- but none from Canada.

It was addressed to me -- Kathy Jeffords -- though, the package from Canada, so I took it, though I had my doubts.  On the customs slip, it declared that it was a ceramic plate and a bowl, which REALLY was cause for doubt.  Now, my friend A., who has been keeping and stocking a hope chest since we were about five, she's the type of gal you buy a ceramic bowl and plate for.  Me?  Those who know me well, when buying me a present, tend to go with a giftcard from Hobby Lobby or Target or maybe pay for me to have my hair cut or get me a pair of pants not spattered in pant.  Not that I have anything against decorative flatware, mind you, it's just -- when one is on an (not starving but not eating out every night either) artist's budget -- free neccessities are much appreciated, the more practical, the better.  Besides -- it's nowhere near my birthday (January 31st!) or Christmas and my friends are not exactly wealthy heiresses and movie stars -- so why would I be getting a present on a random Tuesday in September?  I really was wondering if this was actually for me, or had been misdelivered and was in fact supposed to be in the hands of some bride-to-be-next-week down the road.

Nevertheless, I brought the nice-sized box inside and opened it.  There was lots of newspaper-padding and I pulled it out, piece by piece, looking for a card or a note.  There none, no info about who'd purchased the plate and bowl, only a business card letting me know where they'd purchased it from.

I finally got to the contents themselves, wrapped and wrapped and rewrapped in bubblewrap, and it was obviously, indeed, a ceramic bowl and plate.  Curiouser and curiouser.

"This can't be for me," I said.

Still, I unwrapped the bubble wrap, layer by layer, and when that final layer fell off, I knew, without a doubt, that it WAS meant for me, and only me, and though I'm normally the type of girl who likes to get a giftcard from Hobby Lobby or Target or a pair of unpainted pants, on this day --  a ceramic bowl and plate, THIS ceramic bowl and plate, couldn't have been a more perfect gift, arriving at a more perfect time.

Why was it the perfect gift, at the perfect time?

For starters, I'd been sick off and on with this that and the other (migraine, flu, more migraine, etc.) for...well, it seemed like most of August!  I'd lost a lot of work time and was stressed out and stretched out and that morning, was worn down and anxious, worried about money, second guessing my decision two years ago to leave the officemonkey life behind and make a living doing art and, you know, in the back of my mind, even kind of wondering if it would be so bad to call up the law firm I used to work at and beg them to take me back. 

Do you ever feel like you're just given a sign?  Like a flashing neon sign?  Because Tuesday, that's exactly how I felt, and my neon flashing sign was sort of like a hand patting me on the back, saying, "Sweetie, it's gonna be all right.  This IS the right thing for you.  This IS what you're supposed to be doing. Just keep at it."

The hand-painted, just-for-me ceramic bowl & plate:

The bowl and the plate, done by Oladesign, is of giraffes, butterflies...and the word dreamy.  What a reassurance, a little voice whispering in my ear 'you can do this, you ARE doing this, this isn't some temporary vacation from real life...this IS your life, baby' on a day when I really, really needed it!

But WHO was this perfect gift from?  I had no idea.  Which made it seem like even more of a flashing neon sign from the universe, from fate, from God.  I've since found out who it was from (luckily, as I mentioned, the company included a card and I e-mailed them and inquired) - a past buyer who couldn't have possibly known how much their kindness and that particular gift would mean to me on that particular Tuesday.

It was such a lovely surprise, bringing much-needed comfort and support.  That, along with the wedding gift I've been working on most of the week, had me thinking of surprises a lot, and how fun it is to be surprised AND how it can be even more fun to be the surpriser -- and how much a surprise can mean to the surprisee.  Thoughtfullness is always an excellent thing, but when you have no idea it's coming -- it turns into a WOW! thing.  So I HAD to make this week's Try Day about surprises.

This week, I'm inviting you to surprise somebody -- or multiple somebodies.  Spend today brainstorming and scheming and plotting -- and then, sometime this week, make someone's day with a little unexpected kindess or treat.  Whatever you plan it totally up to you and it may seem like a small thing in your mind -- but you have no idea how big it will be to the recipient.

I already have my surprise all planned out -- I'll share pictures of it next Try Day Saturday - and if you have a surprise story or pictures you'd like to share, post'em in the comments section and I'll include some in next week's post!

Have a dreamy week, everbody, filled with pleasant surprises!

KJ

P.S. Megan, if you happen to be reading this, thank you so, so, so, so very much.  My eyes still get teary when I think about it.

P.S. X 2: It was Chris Kirkpatrick and Rich Cronin.

Comments

[Lisa]

I knew without reading the PS which two you'd seen. Do you realize that by the time *NSYNC, LFO and 98Degrees were doing shows, Bryan was almost a decade past has-been? Scary. I mean they were big in, like, 1992. Geez.

Great. Now I'm thinking of 90210 and I wanna hear "I Adore Mi Amore".

And I have to think of someone to surprise. Does surprising by boss by quitting my job count?!

[Nina]

KJ - what a fun story! Thanks for sharing your dreamy adventure of Tuesday, but also for continuing to live your dream. I'm struggling, too, with wondering if I should just go out and get a "real" job . . . . especially when one realizes that as soon as ANY $$$$ comes it, it is already spoken for (and not by me!!!). But, it surely does seem that everything always does work out - the mortgage gets paid, a few groceries are stocked in the pantry, a little gas in the gas tank, and there you have it until next pay day! But to have the freedom to dream - that is a gift! AND . . . your encouragement to surprise someone or several someones this week is going to be SO much fun. You really got me thinking and planning :o) Thanks and have a great weekend. Nina