Adventures of the Birthday Blog Book: A Christmas Story
My daddy’s 70th birthday is next month. I wanted to get him something really special since it’s likely we will not see each other. He’s a germaphobe and I’m a germaphobe. Needless to say, it’s been almost a year since we’ve seen one another and until the COVID numbers go down or we are vaccinated… how do you even finish that sentence?
Daddy calls me every now and then to ask me to find a particular story I’ve written about him. He told me earlier in the year that he couldn’t find anything and my website was hard to navigate. So I made the about page with buttons to navigate to the categories and tags where he could find his stories. Then he mentioned that he didn’t know how to share it. He said I used to have buttons where he could email it to his friends. I tried to explain that all he had to do was find the story and copy the link but that was too much information.
I just did another website reorganization where I no longer have multiple blogs. Everything I’ve ever written is in the same place and I gave him all his share buttons back. He can share via email and if he’s on his phone he can share via text.
And now I’ve done one better.
Here’s the story…
About a month ago I decided that I would compile all the blog posts I’ve written about him into a book. I went back and forth with several ways to do it so it wouldn’t be so difficult and then wished that I’d given myself more time. I still had two months but I already knew that getting mail timely was an issue so how much time did I really have? I found several companies that you could import your blog into a book and none were perfect. When I finally found the one that was nearly perfect, I couldn’t import from my Squarespace website. By this point I was sold and didn’t have another idea for a birthday present.
I had to create a work-around by importing my entire website into Wordpress. I crossed my fingers that it would work from a free website and honestly couldn’t believe that it did. Once I had the URL, I was able to import into Blookup and select the posts that I wanted in the book. I worked on this for a couple weeks, as I combed through trying to correct any typos and clean out unnecessary links and graphics.
When I was finally done, I emailed Blookup support to see if they could make one correction for me. The inside of the book displays the website you imported from and it was the one I made up in Wordpress. Unfortunately for legal reasons, they couldn’t change it. But that wasn’t the alarming part. When I got the auto reply message from Blookup, it was in French! And the reasonably priced blog book was in EUROS, not American dollars.
That was neither here nor there by that point because I didn't do all of that work for nothing. But I did sit on it for a few days. During which time I learned a valuable lesson. If you leave something in the shopping cart for a while, they entice you with a coupon. I received an email in English, for 15% off. I was going to sit on it a little while longer, I wanted to order it late enough that it wouldn’t arrive before Christmas but would make it there before daddy’s birthday in the middle of next month. Then they sent me another coupon for 20% that was good for 24-hours which I didn’t see until well into the 20th hour. That 20% took the edge off of the EUROS and shipping so I jumped on the discount and ordered the blog book.
I put in the credit card information and it didn’t go through. The red error message was in French. I put in the card one more time and nothing happened. I didn’t know if I had ordered it or not. Within a minute of the French error message, my husband got a fraud alert text on his phone. So after replying “yes” that it was us, I put in the credit card one more time and it went through.
Moments later I checked my the email for the confirmation. I can’t remember if it was in English or French but what I saw was that I’d put in the wrong state for my parents address. I put in Columbia, NC instead of Columbia, SC. I happen to know that there is a Columbia, NC so I imagined my dad’s book floating around in lost Christmas mail, way past his birthday.
I wanted to write the support people in French but I don’t know French. I frantically sent an email right away to explain my error. Just like the first time, the auto reply said [Demande reçue] Untitled ticket 6540 - ##- N’écrivez pas sous cette ligne -##- FR -(if you don't speak French, don't panic, an English version has also been sent to you! ;) )
I still panicked. But they sent me an e-mail in English:
“Hello Kenya, Thank you for choosing BlookUp :) We have modified the address as requested. Have a good day.” — L'Équipe BlookUp / The BlookUp Team
And I replied, Merci beaucoup !
I was surprised when I got an email a few days later that the book had shipped and would be delivered on Christmas Eve! I said, there’s no way. That was on Friday, December 18th. Meanwhile the news was reporting various countries closing their borders due to COVID and I just knew this book was going to get tangled up in closed borders and Christmas mail.
On Monday I received a text from DHL with a link to authorize delivery without a signature. I did that immediately so there wouldn’t be an awkward moment between the DHL guy and the germaphobe hollering through the ring doorbell system.
The book didn’t depart France until Tuesday, so again I thought, there’s no way. But I gave my mom the heads up, just in case because I’d want her to intercept it - an almost impossible request because the germaphobe stalks the mail and sprays everything violently before separating it from it’s outer packaging.
On Wednesday the book was in Germany. The status when I went to bed was shipment on hold. So I thought, there’s no way.
When I woke up on Thursday, I was surprised to see that it had made it to the United States. It was in Cincinnati! But I still said, there’s no way. The East Coast was expected to get severe weather, so I assumed planes would be grounded at some point. But by the afternoon, the book had made it to Greensboro, NC. I started getting excited. I said, if the book really made it there on Christmas Eve then it was meant for daddy to have it on Christmas Day. It was really making my day too, because we’re all low-key sad.
Within a couple hours, the book made it to Charlotte, NC and it was getting late. I knew from there it was definitely on the ground for the rest of the way. I got a text from DHL that the package was with the courier and then I received another one once it had been delivered. I couldn’t believe it! Kudos to DHL Express!
Daddy was in his man cave not expecting mail when I texted mom that the book had been delivered. At this point in the story, daddy turns to mom as asks, “Did you spray the box?”
I received two photos. I wasn’t allowed to share the one with the ugly cry even though it was adorable.
I received two photos. I wasn’t allowed to share the one with the ugly cry even though it was adorable.
Knowing that the backstory shared on my blog will make my daddy’s day, is the #1 reason I wrote it all down.
Merry Christmas Daddy! Thank you for being my #1 blog fan and an inspiration to continue writing. I’m making strides in the right direction!