ANNABELLE'S: June 2013

It is currently 1:25pm and this is the current state of things.

Goodness at the upvotes.

HEY GUESS WHAT. A REALLY COOL THING JUST HAPPENED.
I signed up for RedditGifts sometime last year after a friend told me that they were opening a yarn exchange and he knew that I was a knitter so I might enjoy that. I totally signed up right away and I was hooked. I've done 7 or 8 so far and they've all turned out amazingly well, except for getting shafted once, but that wasn't even that bad because it's all about giving anyway.
So one of the recent exchanges was a Star Trek exchange. I really debated about signing up for that one because I felt like I'm not that much of a fan to be participating in a Star Trek themed thing. Then, I thought, I do know someone who is a huge Star Trek fan!

So I signed up and put this in the info box for the exchange, "I'm signing up for this for my uncle. He's a huge fan. He really likes the original series of Star Trek, cheesy graphics and all. He's a man's man so maybe send something manly. You're the best. I already know you'll do a great job."

I got an anonymous message from my match on the 5th.

Certainly I was excited because the person mentioned getting my uncle's gift from a convention, but I can tell you that my mind did not go to Wil Wheaton AT ALL when I read this message. I just thought, sweet, maybe this person is sacrificing their autograph that they got from an actor to give away. That would've been pretty amazing. To give some background on why I responded, "I'm so sorry! I bet you got a nasty email from Reddit!" I said that because just a few days before, I had selected that I did not receive the gift and usually when you do that Reddit will send an email to your match saying 'You better ship your thing OR ELSE.'

On Saturday, Jess, MJ, and I got together at my G&P's before we headed to Trussville to the bowling alley and I can't remember why we started talking about it, but I somehow convinced them to sign up for RedditGifts. Later on that night, after bowling and we were headed home, I noticed I had a missed call from Xander so I called him back. He was like, "Hey, you got a package from RedditGifts." I said, "Yeah, I know, I was expecting one. That's the one for Bryan." Then he was like, "You'll never believe what the return address says." Then he texted me a picture and I was all OMG SOMUCH ASDNFCAOWERGWHAT? Jess & MJ were in the car and I had to explain why I kept saying NUH UH. I told them about the gift for their dad and that the return address said Wil Wheaton. They were like, "Who?" Even after all this, they still probably don't know who he is.. haha. So them being who they are, they wanted me to call Xander back and have him open up the present. I told them I wanted to wait for Bryan to open it. They convinced me because I'm a pushover and because they're persistant. So I called my brother back and asked him to VERY CAREFULLY open the package and take a few pictures so we could see what was inside. He called me right back presumably because he was excited to announce what was inside. At this point, I was very skeptical about the realness of the whole thing. The letter though... the letter felt really real. So I decided that it must be.

I went back to G&P's that night and I couldn't sleep at all. I was a weird kind of nervous that had a lot to do with celebrities who are also really nice people. The next day I was supposed to get up and go with my family to see Fried Green Tomatoes at the Alabama Theatre, but while lying awake, I devised a plan to meet up with my dad about halfway between my actual house and my grandparents house so I could pick up the package and let Bryan open it that same day. It was an excellent plan.

Everything went to according to plan and I gave Bryan the gift and Jess and MJ pretty much told him what was inside before he opened it because they're bad at secrets. G&P, Linda, & Cason were also there during the unveiling. There was some confusion from the people who weren't in the know, (G&P), but Bryan was really surprised and happy. That was the best part.

I posted the gift to Redditgifts at about 4:30p on Monday afternoon and I also posted it to facebook at the same time.

Mom commented almost immediately and Jess, too. Another one of my friends is a pretty big Star Trek fan so that was cool that she commented.

Then I noticed that RedditGifts promoted my thing!

And about that same time, Wil Wheaton commented on my post!

Which is hella rad. What is also rad is the amazingly sweet and nice comments that people keep leaving about Wil and my uncle Bryan.

I'm just so delighted. I tried not to fangirl too much on the RedditGifts post. I'm not totally clueless and I figured that it would get a little bit popular. Which, by my book, it definitely has.

I figured I could save that fangirling for this blog. Also, I fibbed a little on the RedditGifts post just because I was trying to be succinct. I've noticed that sometimes people go off on a tangent and that it sometimes is boring.

I keep wanting to send @wilw a tweet, but I just don't know what to say. Typing out a long post on reddit is one thing, because it's kind of impersonal. A tweet is like... direct. He could actually like, reply and stuff. And plus, I don't want to inflate his ego too much.

But seriously, he typed my name like 4 times. He maybe even said it out loud once! I mean, there's no way for me to know that, but STILL. COOL.

I've got to remember to give that friend of mine who referred me to RedditGifts a big old hug.

A new thing that happened today(6/12/13):

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *DEAD*

The thing about reading good books at work is the crys. I've been answering the phones at the front desk this week, which is not what I usually do, and people don't come by that often, but it's awkward when someone walks through and says hello and my eyes are watery and when I respond my voice cracks.
In case you were wondering, I'm reading All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin. So much good.

Anyway, I'm going to pause the reading/crying to post some pictures. I went home for two weeks at the end of May and spent some time with my long lost friends and a little too much time, for my taste, with my little bro. All in all, had a fabulous time. And I've got pictures to prove it!