On Friday night, like every night last week, I came home from work hoping that Lessons to Learn had arrived. But there was nothing in our mail-flap. And, once I’d opened the door slowly, there was nothing on the foot of the stairs. But that was okay on Friday. We were having friends around for dinner that night, and I had washing to put away.

Half an hour later, I had a bag of rubbish to transfer to our outside bin. As I went to unlock the front door again, I somehow noticed a white Handi Packaging envelope which the postman had left behind a pot on our front steps. We’ve been meaning to put a plant in that pot, but it’s probably a good thing we haven’t got around to it yet. Because – white plastic envelope, my address on the front, Cape Catley’s address on the back, $5 worth of stamps and an airmail sticker – there it was.

And then the anticipation. I couldn’t just open it there by myself. I had to wait for Matt, my husband, to come home from work, so he could share in the excitement (okay, and also so he could get out the camera and document the excitement). He took a very long time to come home – or perhaps only twenty minutes – but it felt like a long time.

I’ve always loved getting mail, and this was definitely one of the highlights of my mail opening career. I remember the anticipation, excitement and slight terror that accompanied the arrival of my School Certificate results after a summer of waiting. This package invoked rather similar feelings.  I reached my hand inside, and out came a with compliments slip, some bubble wrap, and a book.

It’s here, and the Lessons to Learn which was an idea, a short story, a set of poems, a pile of papers, has indeed become a book. And how pretty it is, with a shiny cover, and thick white pages, and beautifully laid out text. Everyone who’s worked on the publication has just done a fantastic job.

Two days later, and I still can’t get over it. Matt’s tried it out on our bookshelf to see how it looks there. He’s taken to reading it on trams and trains – which is most embarrassing when I’m sitting next to him. What if someone recognises me from the back cover photo? Truth is, no one’s probably paying any attention whatsoever. But it’s here, it’s here, it’s here, and how exciting is that.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2007 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Lessons to Learn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.