Day 273 - FedEx Is Delivering a Package Tomorrow

I am so excited. FedEx called me today - I didn't answer the phone because caller ID told me there was an unknown caller on the other end, but I got the message in my e-mail inbox:

Hello this is FedEx home delivery calling with your delivery information. I delivery is scheduled for Friday, November first, that requires a signature. The tracking number is 555555555 888888. If someone will not be available to sign for the shipment. You can track your package is status on the FedEx.com and click the customized(?) delivery button to check it eligibility to be held at a FedEx location or if sign for a package is an option print out the form and follow the directions to have your package last. To repeat this information press any key.

Image of a FedEx truck by myjon, via Flickr.com

I know my visual e-mail translator isn't perfect, but I got the gist of the message. And I am so excited. Who could be sending me a package? (Notice how I transformed the word delivery from the message into package in my mind?) It must be a gift. Yes, that must be it: a gift from someone who is thinking about me. Maybe it is from someone I haven't seen for a very long time, like the friends from Berkeley I haven't been in touch with for nearly 40 years. We just got in touch again this month after I found them using whitepages.com. I looked up his name and then scanned through the many men with the same name until I came across one that listed his wife's name, too.  I sent them a card and they responded by e-mail so we are connected again.

Or maybe it is someone I know very well who is sending me a birthday present. It's a little early, but not everyone waits until the last minute to send a card. Maybe it's a birthday present.

Or maybe it is from my company. I just got a message from my boss that the team I work with at the State Department is the company's Civil Sector Award Winner for this quarter. We got an award once before, but they only gave us one plague which we were supposed to share. We gave it to our government contracting representative as a reminder of why it is such good business for him to keep us all on board. This time I don't work in the same office, so maybe my boss decided to send one just to me. Maybe it's an award.

I hope it isn't just another ploy by a health insurance company that knows I am so close to becoming eligible for Medicare. I've been getting letters from health insurance companies with the most outrageous devices to make me think each is important. One company stamps their letters with

VERIFIED. SPECIAL DELIVERY. PERSONAL, DO NOT DELAY.

Another boldly prints

Open Immediately. TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY.

with the further notation,

SEE TLT 18 SEC 1702-US CODE. Obstruction of U.S. Mail is punishable by fines up to $2000 or 5 years in prison or both.

My favorite ploy is when companies use those envelopes where there is carbon paper inside so the letter can be printed even though the envelope is sealed and can only be opened by folding down each of the ends to make ripping off that tiny strip easier and then the letter can be pulled out. I am convinced they use that type of envelope because they think only the government would be so behind the times as to still be using them and the recipient might be fooled into thinking this is the big one.

It is entirely believable that some health insurance company would think sending me a letter via FedEx would trick me into thinking this is the big one.

Image from NaNoWriMo by hoosadork
(I didn't make that up), via Flickr.com

But I'm still excited. Even if the delivery FedEx has scheduled for tomorrow is just another health insurance company trying to convince me they have the solution to all my Medicare gap challenges, I have had the opportunity to fantasize and come up with exciting possibilities from my overactive imagination. And the timing for that is perfect because tomorrow starts National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and I'm going to put my 365 Project to good use for the next 30 days, writing something that might someday turn into a novel.