Happy Galentine’s Day! I am drinking out of my festive mug!
This holiday is increasingly fun for me with each passing year, but I think we can agree that this year really takes the cake. I spent THE ENTIRE DAY yesterday working on various aspects of the care packages, and I don’t know if I can adequately describe the happy energized feeling. ALL DAY LONG I felt the buzz of Happy Industry, combined with the fun of Getting To Choose Gifts (if gift-giving is not one of your love languages, this may be baffling; you will have to trust me), combined with the extreme brain chemicals of having so many people being so kind to other people. And I am nowhere near done! More on this later in the post.
There are two anxious elements, because there are always going to be anxious elements. One is that I am worried my organizational system will fail me and I will mess this up somehow; the other is that I feel like I need to HURRY. For the former, my Coping Thought is that we will figure this out, and if something falls through the cracks (an email gets sent to spam, someone gets chosen twice and I don’t notice right away, I choose too many or too few winners, etc.) we will simply fish it back out. For the latter, my Coping Thought is that these care packages were ALWAYS going to be belated! Even when it was just ONE package, it wasn’t going to arrive in time. There’s no actual rush! I will just take it bird by bird! (I am not sure how familiar that phrase is. Paul had never heard of it. It’s from an Anne Lamott book where she tells a story of her brother being overwhelmed by a project that had to be on some overwhelming number of birds, like thirty or fifty or something, and their dad said something like “Just take it bird by bird, son.”)
And there is no sense in RUSHING through something Rare and Fun, when going a little slower means wringing every single good brain chemical out of the experience! So yesterday I sent out the thirty emails to the thirty winners, and then I started going through the responses in the order they came in, putting together the first care package for the first respondent and so on, and meanwhile my inbox looks like this, except there’s screen after screen of it:
Target sends an order confirmation, but then also sends a shipping notification for every single part of the order that ships, and then sends another email to say the package will be delivered the following day, and then sends another email to say that the package is out for delivery that day, and then sends a final email to say the package has been delivered. So far, most of the packages I’ve put together look like they’ll be shipped in approximately three separate boxes per order, so the notifications are going to POUR IN: approximately thirteen per care package. And it was pretty thrilling how quickly things started shipping: by the time I was working on the tenth package, items from the first package were starting to ship!
BUT THERE IS MORE. Because the entire day, while I was working on the packages, MORE DONATIONS WERE COMING IN. MORE DONATIONS. MORE. I don’t even KNOW at this point how many more winners we have, but AT LEAST FOURTEEN MORE, because ONE SINGLE PERSON sent enough for FOURTEEN PACKAGES, and then there are ALSO more emails from PayPal I haven’t even OPENED yet. So here is the task list for the days ahead:
• I will choose AT LEAST FOURTEEN more winners. My goal is to choose those first fourteen today, and add their names to the original post. There WILL BE more winners than that, but it’s a little tricky to figure out exactly how many, so I will keep choosing more winners until all the money that has been sent in is gone, and then I will choose one more winner (because the original plan was that I was going to pay for one myself).
• I will EMAIL those new winners in as many batches as it takes.
• I will go bird-by-bird through the responses to those emails, taking as much time as each package needs to be FUN.
I woke up this morning SUFFUSED WITH JOY at the thought of continuing this project. Last night I had to force myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour. I was halfway through a care package and felt like I should maybe rush to finish it so I could check it off the list, but instead I just left it where it was on the “don’t rush if it makes it Less Fun” principle—and this morning when I woke up I felt so HAPPY that I could spend more time on it!
Oh, Swistle, you are the best! This just makes me happy. I love that you are taking the time to make the good feelings last as long as possible. Being a tiny part of this project also makes me feel warm inside, so thank you for that.
Your joy just pours through the screen.
I am DELIGHTED by all this and I encourage you to not rush but just do it at a FUN pace!
Oh joy.
30
30!
30!!!!
Or more!
Yes!! Take your time and savour it.
This makes me SO HAPPY. All of it. (Although I did have a wakeful hour last night worrying about sales tax, and whether you were including that in the $25 per gift, or if it would be extra, and whether you needed extra donations for that??? Can you tell I grew up in a state without sales tax and it baffles me to this day?)
Swiftlets, you are a delight. Thank you so much for organizing this occasion for joy.
I have read this over and over to soak in the joy and delight and goodwill. How beautiful and needed in “these times.” Thank you so much, Swistle! Look at what you inspire and pull off. It’s amazing. And what a movement Jen pushed forward by adding in her sponsorship! I wanted to send a donation yesterday but figured cut off and winners chosen meant it was over. I didn’t want to ruin a good thing by overwhelming you. But it just makes me laugh with happiness that the donations keep pouting in, and that you are loving this and taking your time to wring all the joy. So my partial sponsorship has joined the line in your PayPal inbox.
This is just beautiful. As much as I love receiving gifts, watching you and all who donated putting together packages to send out care to random internet people is amazing and inspiring. My husband has not only dropped the Valentine’s Day ball, it rolled off out of sight and deflated.
What a fun event, my friend is going to be blessed and happy, and it doesn’t matter when she gets it because she’s not expecting it, and I am so happy for her, and so happy that it makes you and others happy! 🤭 Whew!
That is absolutely delightful. :-) Thank you so much for all the happy!
I am SO HAPPY for you! And for all the winners, and all the people who donated to this joyfest. SO HAPPY!! Keep wringing that joy out.
I was one of the selected winners. I can’t tell you, I just can’t, how 1. Swistle’s email made me cry and 2. how I keep tearing up about all of this.
There’s a long list of reasons why this year is the Worst Valentine’s Day Ever and I just…..thank you. <3
I am gleefully jumping up and down because this is beautiful
This is just the best!!! thank you Swistle and donaters! (donators?)
Donors ;)
I love gift-giving so so much a I feel so so happy to know you get to enjoy this process.
Hooray for Galentines!!!
Xoxo
I am one of the winners. That alone brightened my day by so much, and every time I thought of it, it brought a smile and happy feeling to my heart. Reading your excitement in planning each box just reinforces these feelings. Thank you for bringing so much joy to so many people during this stressful time.
Swistle. For. The. Win. This Galentine event has brought so much fun and joy to so many–winners, non-winners, donors, and Swistle herself! Kudos for the best idea yet! Lots of love being shared!
Valentine’s Day isn’t generally a holiday I have strong feelings about. For a few years early in our relationship, my husband and I made a pretty big deal out of it because we didn’t spend Christmas together. But, once that changed Valentines slipped back down on the list and maybe we made a special dinner or went out to lunch together, but it was more of a reminder to spend some time together than anything else. Then, we had a child on 2/17 and Valentine’s really lost significance because we’re still at the stage where birthdays are a super big deal and lots of fun for everyone, including the parents.
BUT – this year I find myself thinking “Yay, Valentine’s Day!” because of this fun outpouring. I am so enjoying everything about this.
This is amazing. May I suggest a repeat for another often disappointing holiday- Mother’s Day?
Also this could be a fun business: send Swistle $40, your address and the date of your birthday/anniversary/ test results and Swistle will select a gift package (valued at $25ish) for you. May contain calendar twin, hand made ceramic, all sorts of surprises.
I love this idea!
I can’t even tell you smile this put on my face! And I didn’t even win anything, so the joy this has created is bigger than just for those donating or chosen. Thank you for facilitating this, Swistle!
My heart is bursting! This little corner of the internet is just the best.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3
I’m just now reading this a day (?) later (who knows – time lost all meaning when the power went out yesterday and we were without internet until this afternoon) and I am OVERJOYED at your joy. This is one of the best little corners of the internet and I’m honored to be part of it.
This whole thing makes me smile, and I’m glad it’s happening. I didn’t expect to have a crappy V-Day but it turns out I did! After making special french toast (and later on, pizza) for my husband, a chocolate pie for my son, and getting a potted plant (which she had been coveting) for my daughter, I got – nothing. Not a card, not a single “Happy Valentine’s Day.” I told my husband he should go get me a card because I was starting to feel bad and he did but…you know how that goes. It was already too late. Maybe next year will be better.
I’m not even participating in this Galentine’s Day scheme of yours but I’m so excited about your excitement! :) What a lovely thing you’ve set in motion.