Flats in Guangzhou

Note to self: check mail more often.

 

Leanne had told me awhile ago that James was going to send me a Flat Stanley, but I didn’t really know when he’d done it to figure out when it would arrive. Mail typically takes 2-3 weeks to arrive but unless we get packages, there’s no notification. If you know you’re going to get regular envelope mail, it’s up to you to go check.

And since our mailing room is down a couple of people, mail processing has been a little slow. I have gone up from time to time since Bhutan to check my mail, but between early closures, slow processing and me being chained to my desk, I hadn’t been able to click with the timing until the day before Thanksgiving.

Once I finally made it, I had a small backlog, including a Netflix, a thing reminding me to vote (which I did, early) and a mysterious big envelope with an unknown return address but definitely Leanne’s writing.

Just so you know, it doesn’t cost extra postage to ship to me. The pouch has a US ZIP code, so you just slap regular stamps on whatever’s being mailed. No need to put $5 in stamps or anything like that.

When I got outside (we can’t open mail in the office), I opened  the letter and confirmed that it was, indeed, Leanne’s writing and it was my overdue Flat Stanley, whom I’d pretty much forgotten about.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Flat Stanley is a schoolkid project. You send him away and his host documents, with pictures and what have you, his travels.

I’m a boring host, so his trip with me has been mostly doing the running around that I need to do. Fortunately, he made it in time for the holiday, and I put him to work.

 

Wednesday we had an “early release” day and I got off around 2. With Flats loaded up, we went shopping for Toys for Tots, which our Marines are collecting now.

This is lots of fun; last year I got an East Bake Oven and Lincoln Logs, but I did it while I was still in the U.S. The Marines collected at post, but since I’d already contributed, I didn’t do it again. And I remembered them doing a late call for gifts for older kids, so this year, I headed to the sporting goods store.

Flats and I had fun in the store. I put him with a scooter, the skateboard and yard game I eventually bought, and even a pair of shoes. In his little diary, I wrote that they were a little bit too big, but really the reason he decided not to buy them was that they were Gator colored.

When we got home, I got to work cooking two side dishes and posed him with carrots and potatoes. I also shot him watching a movie, in bed (with a teddy bear) and in an E.T. pose with my stuffed animals.

Because I have no idea of his due date, I tried to cram in a lot over the weekend. On Thanksgiving morning, I took him to the gym and posed him around everything from the weight bench to the sauna.

Then we went to two different Thanksgiving parties and he posted with before and after pictures of the tables. We did serious damage, but somehow I brought home just as much food as I took.

Today, Flats went with a colleague to Foshan, which is the place with the toilet waterfall. (Two weeks ago; I posted photos.) I hope he comes back unscathed. The colleague told me that she’s taken one of Flats’ relatives to the Great Wall and managed to drop him. So hopefully James’ buddy Flats arrives home intact.

When he returns, I will finish the PowerPoint presentation I started and get it to Leanne; not sure how but I will. I have been sending photos daily so hopefully it works out all right.

Really, it’s been kinda fun. It’s given me an excuse to go out and take pictures of my apartment and neighborhood that would have normally been too stupid to do.