Coincidence

When I posted last night, I wasn’t actually in a terrible mood or anything, just a mood. It was a surreal day.

I knew then that I was forgetting one other great thing about yesterday, which likely would have made my written self appear less cranky. There was the prodigal cat’s return home, yes (which is a story in itself), but there was also something else. Something spectacular that is almost as unbelievable as the return of the cat. Something that is really eerily coincidental given the current contest in which we all now find ourselves embroiled.

Okay. Stay with me here.

Back when I had the brilliant idea of asking people to cheer me on in the Minionlympics — the same idea that inspired this here Bethsack! give!away! — I mentioned it. Way down there at the bottom, in an honest-to-goodness footnote.

I LOVE giving people presents. I love love LOVE even more the idea of paying it forward by giving someone something that will then inspire a similar spirit. And I LOVE LOVE LOVAH KISSY*KISS*KISS the idea of doing this in a way that is completely random or anonymous or secret or with a stranger. So, I ADORE the idea of projects like Bookcrossing.

Well. Until yesterday, first day of Bethsack!, I had never had anyone log any of the books I’d released into the wild. In fact, I’d long since STOPPED doing it altogether because I’d gotten frustrated by the lack of response. I imagined all my books being thrown into trash cans by the housekeepers who eventually cleaned the public spaces in which I’d released them.

Yesterday, someone logged a book I left on a table near the main entrance of the Student Union at The University of Texas at Austin on September 2, 2008. I found out I was pregnant with Archer nine days later. Exactly one day shy of 18 months “traveling,” and someone 215 miles away in Plano, Texas “caught” one of my books! On the first day of Bethsack!, a contest inspired by exactly the kind of spirit behind Bookcrossing and that I’d mentioned in my first post about the idea three weeks ago. Wowza.

I was GIDDY.

Now. Let’s celebrate by playin’ summmmmmm Bethsack!

• Bethsack! is being created in the spirit of Whimsy‘s Plain White Box. Winner commits to hosting his or her own pay-it-forward give!away! in this same spirit. If winner does not have a blog or other social platform from which to host give!away!, I am happy to host give!away! here (your rules, your stuff and whatevs).
• Bethsack! will be an actual SACK (or BAG) full of stuff. Great, great mystery stuff. (And contrary to Brad’s suggestion today, I have no intention of using kangaroo scrotum in any way.)
• You can win Bethsack! both by commenting on my posts this week (one entry per day) or by submitting random question(s) for me to answer at a later date, either to the text box over there in the righthand sidebar or to my formspring profile (unlimited entries!).
• In order to get credit for any questions submitted to me via formspring, you have to either toggle the “Include Your User Info” radio button, note your identity in your question(s) somehow, or email me (alicia D beth (at) gmail (dot) com), and let me know how many questions you submitted anonymously.
• Minionlympics supporters (SILVAH, thankyouverymuch) start with additional entries, as detailed here.
• Winner will be determined in some fair way, either by random number generator some-a-ma-schnoozle or by child picking from container or something. Depends on whether I’m feeling more analog or digital that day.
• Contest runs until Friday, March 5th, at 6 p.m. CST.

Say somethin’ profound, yo!