I got home last night to a FedEx slip. Ugh, I thought, now we’ve got to go stand in line. And find a new place in the dark and the rain. And the wet.

I called Jer, since it was his package, to make sure he wasn’t working late. He wasn’t. We deduced that we had a narrow window, 45 minutes, from the time we were allowed to visit the FedEx factory to the time it closed. So when Jer got home (I was watching the last twenty minutes of Gilmore Girls), he printed off directions from Google Maps and then we embarked upon our adventure. Neither of us had any idea what type of present could possibly require the FedEx touch, but we were willing to investigate.

At the FedEx factory, we were greeted by a super uber mega line. A line that had devolved into a blob shape, not really a line any longer because a line implies order. A kind soul directed us to check-in at the desk and then step back to wait for Imminent Package Retrieval. Meanwhile the place was packed, elbow to elbow, and more people pushed through the automatic sliding door all the time. Oh, it was anarchy.

Twenty-five minutes later we’d befriended a guy who was picking up an iPod. We mocked stuff together.

And then, the magical moment! Jer’s name was called and we pushed our way to the front, through stacks of bodies. The box was no help. Jer carried it to the car, set it in the trunk, and sliced an end open. Lo and behold, there sat bundled a DVD player, in all its glory.

And so we watched “Whale Rider.” And stayed up many hours past my bedtime so that I could see it a second time.

I am drinking coffee in a fancy travel mug because of my wickedness. But it is delicious wickedness.

Jer has worked late nearly every night for 2 weeks, and has been on call during the weekends. But I think it’ll slow down since his company just laid off one-third of their employees. Happy holidays. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. He’s a contract worker so we didn’t expect he’d be there forever. If the axe does fall or the company locks its doors without letting anyone know, we’re not too worried. We have money saved and he’d enjoy the break. Plus it’ll be a good experience for him to see how a company dies.

Good times.