I can only imagine what the other shoppers were thinking ...

I got a call from K today. I wasn't expecting to hear from him until tomorrow. He's been able to call pretty much every three days or so, so it was a pleasant surprise. When he called, though, I was actually in line at the post office to send him a care package.

K had sent me an e-mail telling me a few things he needed -- some vitamins, facewash, deodorant. So I went to Wal-Mart and went to the men's deodorant/shaving aisle. I found the red Old Spice sticks, and I reached for the one that he had wanted -- "aqua-something." He told me I could pick whichever one I liked. Since he knew his had aqua in the name of the scent, I grabbed the only one that said aqua. I pulled the lid off to make sure it was the right one, and it smelled just like him. So there I was, standing in the middle of the aisle at Wal-Mart, smelling K's deodorant because it smelled like him. I even walked away still smelling it. I probably looked slightly (slightly) crazy, but who cares -- it smelled like K! I even briefly thought about buying another stick to just smell from time to time, but that thought only lasted about one second.

I sent K an e-mail telling him the story about Cody, his dad and the preacher (last three paragraphs), and he e-mailed me back saying that the story really got to him. He said all the prayers back home really help, and he really appreciated that the preacher was starting church praying for the soldiers. I think the story made both of us feel good.

He had said something in his e-mail, too, about hoping he'd get the first package soon that I sent him two and a half weeks ago. I had sprayed the letter I wrote him with my perfume and wrapped it in plastic so the smell would (hopefully) stay on it. In his e-mail, he said something about cuddling with whatever smelled like me. That gave me the idea of including a pillow case sprayed with perfume in this package. I was going to keep it a surprise, but I couldn't help it. I told K, and it turns out it's good I sent it because he did buy a standard-sized pillow, but he said that pillow cases there are the low price of two for $8. He just used a T-shirt and tied it around the pillow. Now, he'll have a pillow case, AND (hopefully) it'll smell like my perfume!