Just A Castaway ...

This holiday season is just so emotionally supercharged. I search for hope and inspiration in a constant parade of bad news and difficulty. I know I'm not alone at feeling alone and frightened. I take deep comfort in this. But amidst all this, the past couple of days have been very sweet. My domme friend - the one "who-lives-far-away-but-sometimes-visits" - sent along a care package of gifts with a friend who is visiting here. She included a gift to play Santa Claus with, some cards ... and a gift all for me and my very own holiday card. This was a first.

She also asked me to hunt and gather some items which are hard for her to find on the island paradise where she now lives. So I've spent chunks of the last couple of days searching for make-up. Maybelline, turbo-boosted, brownish black, must be waterproof. Revlon "Raspberry Rush"??? I think I found a guy on E-Bay who has stock piled this color, but I searched high and low and just could not find it anywhere in Manhattan! Do you know that no Duane Reade, CVS, Rite-Aid, chain store on my island paradise carries Cover Girl nail polish. I finally found it in a K-Mart near Macy's ... but did they have "Classic Red"?? Noooooo!!

So anyway ... this morning I put together my little care package. Make-up, her late birthday present, a little Christmas gift and a card. In the sleety grey of this Sunday before, I made my way to the hotel where her friend is staying. I made the switcheroo - my package for hers. When I got back underground while waiting for my train, I greedily tore open my card from the one I love.

On the outside of the card is a 50's-ish photo of a housewife saying, "If by 'happy' you mean trapped with no means of escape ...?" On the inside is written, "...then yes, I'm happy."

Among other things in her little note to me she wrote, "[You are] happily free in your bond to me." And I truly am. It was great to hunt and gather and think about how much closer she and I have become this year. Even though we talk reqularly on the phone, text each other and email some, I felt this morning when I left my gifts for her at the hotel desk that I had cast my bottle on the sea hoping it washes up on her shores. The nice thing is ... I think we are each other's message in a bottle.