Little Surprises

I love little surprises. I had just settled in for a bite of lunch when I heard a knock at our front door. Our neighbor from across the hall was standing there, so I opened up and asked what was the matter? She has never knocked on our door before. She pointed to the floor, and there was a thin, Amazon box, resting against the door post. I thanked her, still a bit surprised that she would think to knock to let me know I had this box waiting outside, and surprised that the box was there at all. I'll want to express my gratitude to this neighbor soon. That is twice she's alerted me to a waiting package, which never happened in our old place. As for the box, I'd ordered a few books for school, and wasn't expecting either of them to arrive on account of the snow, but one has. Women in the Athenian Agora by Susan Rotroff and Robert D. Lamberton. It is a slim volume, the twenty-sixth in the Excavations of the Athenian Agora Picture Book Series, and required reading for my Women and Gender in the Classical World course this spring. The book is lovely, and as the series title suggests, chock full of pictures. I'll see about scanning a few in for my lectures and presentations. Surprises are wonderful.

P.S. Not all surprises are wonderful. Thorn decided that our hallway wall was his canvass this morning, and so I've spent the better portion of fifteen minutes scrubbing with all my might against the squiggles and wiggles of brown, blue, and black crayon. Ah, toddlers. Gotta love'em.