Sunday 3 March 2013

Brown paper packages, tied up with string ...

Getting mail.  By far - one of the best things ever.  I'm not talking about the over-priced Hydro bill (boo-hiss and what the heck is a 'debt retirement charge' anyways?), or the phone bill (why do we even HAVE a landline anymore?), or even what appears to be a genuine letter ... only to find out that it's a computer-generated-fake-signature letter from your local government representative (can you hear it hitting the side of the recycle bin?).

No friends, I'm talking about "real mail" ... "fun mail" ... like birthday cards from your grandma that have newspaper clippings stuffed inside ... like a postcard from your best friend who still sends you postcards when she's on holiday because she knows how much you love them ... and then ... there's the mother-load-of-awesome'ness ... a brown paper package ... too big to fit in the mailbox ... my heart skips a beat ...

In February, I signed up for a "Vegan Food Swap" - organized by the devilishly clever MeShell In Your CityShe's a Torontonian and a Vegan ... and in my opinion one of the coolest people in the universe for organizing this food swap.  Think "penpal that sends you food".  I know ... I know ... how did you exist so long without knowing about this?  While not a vegan (DH is the son of a butcher, so really, we're a meat-and-potatoes couple), I am a slave to veggies and totally curious about the vegan-lifestyle ... and one of my girlfriends has been a vegan for well over a year and this lady GLOWS, so there's gotta be something to it ... I digress ...

I signed-up for the food swap, not really knowing what to expect - but that was half-the fun ... the other half ... well to be perfectly honest, was panic.  What would I (the non-vegan) be able to send a REAL vegan that wasn't "done before"?  The last thing I wanted was for my new foodie-penpal to open their box and think "wow ... that sucks".   While I stewed about this potential disaster, I received my first email from MeShell ... my first vegan-foodie-penpal was Caroline - over at the Vegan Hammock.  I DASHED to my most fav. 100 mile market and began my hunt for 'vegan things' ...

A few days later, I arrived home to find THIS waiting for me on our messy kitchen table ...