generosity.

A strange package arrived for me at Naked today. I wasn't expecting anything.



I inspected the label, and it seemed to be from Thailand. This was inside:



Beautiful, a hand-made candle! I opened the enclosed note:

Dear : Johanna
I hope you will like it, a hand-made candle.
On 13 Apr, It's Thai New Year.
Take it as a New Year gift from me.
Best wishes,
Oakie :)

GAH! I am floored and truly touched. I have been blogfriends with Oakie for quite a while now. He is applying to the Adcenter, and frankly I think they would be nuts if they didn't take him. I don't think I've ever met such an enthusiastic and friendly guy. He's like a sponge too - eager to learn about everything. A very thoughtful friend, as well. Thank you, Thanit :)

generosity.

a medieval Noodle
Originally uploaded by johanna on video.

This time of year, more than most, reminds me of how generous people can be. Sure, random acts of kindness throughout the year are prevalent, but something about this time makes people feel a little more generous, I think. This is nothing new, of course: people tip more, smile more (for the most part), laugh more with each other (or maybe that was just at our long long Christmas lunch last night), etc.

Yesterday, we did Secret Santa here. The theme was "The Knight Before Christmas," probably because of our battle against the medieval marketing model. Well, Neal got me, and knowing that I dressed up as Noodle for Halloween, bought me the Noodle doll from Kid Robot. To stay in theme, he dressed her up in armor and gave her a sword and shield to match her guitar. I was positively tickled.

Then I get home, cloudy and fuzzy from our long Christmas lunch, and have an email from Flickr saying that Clay bought me a pro account. WOW! I have been wanting a pro account for quite some time, but kept putting off for when I had more disposable income. I am so so touched. What a generous and thoughtful thing to do. He said "you carry that camera around all the time, so I figure you must be using it, and you don't post pictures on Flickr that much, so...I connected the dots." Very, very nice. I am so thankful. And just a few days ago I was thinking about how I am posting fewer photos on my server and more on Flickr. Web 2.0 and the heightened level of sharing has certainly gotten to me.

So, thank you to Neal and Clay for making my Monday (and week /season) wonderful.