christmas is coming up, and i feel really bad that gary has to spend the holidays in a war zone. we first got together during christmas three years ago, and this is our first christmas apart. so i thought, it's time for a care package!
i've sent him a few care packages in the past when he was in kentucky and korea (hey, now he's in kirkuk...there's a pattern here...) and there is no way i'm letting christmas pass without him getting something from me so i just jumped right in. i knew preparing the box could be pretty tricky, but i didn't know it was a hazard to one's mental well-being.
1. get the videos.
before deployment, he asked me to make a video of me singing a song for him, something he can put on his mp3 player for viewing while he's away. i wasn't able to do it because, well, i didn't really want to. he's the only person who insists i have a talent for it. recording myself is like leaving an indelible track that may haunt me forever and i don't want that. he was making tampo about it when he left, so despite myself, and in the spirit of the holidays,i reunited with my jurassic acoustic guitar and recorded a song for him, and another one with a christmas message. i got my brother's baby, and i recorded a video of him too, which was even harder to do. dealing with babies and videos needs perfect timing i tell you. at the end of all the recordings, i suddenly realized the format was .avi, so i had to go online and check what types of video formats are compatible with his player. i then had to download a video converter, and if your computer has had no taste of a virus scan for the past two, three years, this can be totally infuriating. i was able to make them into .wmv after some agonizing hours, but having no special technical knowledge of sound/video editing, the timing of the audio to the video didn't match. oh well.
2. ready the dvds.
gary's even more bored than i am. and he begged me to send him dvds to kill time. he bought a portable dvd player because our laptop's up for repair.
3. develop photos.
i just figured gary and i didn't have hard copies of our pictures. who keeps 8x10s these days anyway? so i went through all our digital photos and had them printed for him. some were taken when we were still going out, one was during christmas, and then i added some photos of jepoy, our nephew/inaanak. i also put a framed picture of us...where i looked the nicest, of course :P
4. hoard pinoy foods.
i stuffed my grocery cart with chocnut, and cornick, and peanuts, and eggnog, and what have you, only to realize that they're pretty strict about the halal standard in iraq. the la paz batchoy cup noodles had to go.
5. don't forget the toiletries!
gary has this oc behavior when it comes to cleanliness. so it will forever escape me how he deals with his current portalet situation. i sent him this axe chocolate deodorant, some baby wipes, baby powder, lotion, insect repellant, nail cutters, a loofah, and some muscle pain reliever.
6. pack them with L-O-V-E
i carefully put together similar products to make it easier to ship. to protect the letter, dvds and cds i made for him from snoopy eyes, i carefully emptied a sustagen box from the bottom and slipped all of my stuff inside, along with a slim packet of nestea iced tea (to make that powder sound when shaken), and sealed the bottom side of the box with mighty bond. voila! you wouldn't know the difference.
7. do your research.
having worked as a writer, i should have known step number 7 must ALWAYS be step number 1. this pretty much messed everything up. i went to fedex with my angel of a friend, tina, who drove for me all the way to subic. when we got there, the first fedex store was closed, we had to go downtown and try shipping from the other branch. the lady said they didn't send to APO addresses. the last time they did, the package got delayed for weeks.
but i was unyielding. i said i was able to send to an APO address via fedex before (which is true you know) and that i didn't care whether it's gonna take weeks as long as it's gonna reach my baby before christmas. she must've sensed desperation (besides the fact that i really wanted the package sent, the hard work of putting together everything was just too much to forget) and said yes.
so tina and i stuffed everything into the fedex box, which was, for the price i was paying, extremely small. mary poppins would've been so proud! we were able to put everything in...except for the v-cuts (which gary loves) because they took too much space. we sealed the box, paid the shipping price that's twice more expensive than what was inside, and crossed our fingers.
when i got home, i checked fedex.com and saw all the regulations that i should've known in the first place. no powders. i sent baby powder, and the sustagen powder drink that contains all that's essential in the care package will also be, technically, not allowed. no liquids. the insect repellant, the mouthwash, the lotion are all of course in liquid form.
they also really don't deliver to apos in iraq. the best that they can do is bring it to fob warrior and if the mail people there are nice enough, maybe they'll bring it to patrol base doria. if not, gary will have to make a way for him to pick up the package, which has, by the way, reached parañaque, china, and dubai.
today i click on track your package at the fedex website and the 4 kilos that i sent is now only 2.7 kilos. did they get rid of everything? what about my videos? oh it's gonna suck so bad if the really important stuff in there don't reach him.oh, and did i tell you that right after i sent the package, i learned that i can pre-order a care package online from the states to be sent to him via US postal service and it will reach him in a few days for half the price? oh well. as long as my fedex box will reach him, it's worth all the pain. the website says it'll be in fob warrior december 20 at 8pm. let's see how it goes.
