Who here likes mysteries?

I just received an e-mail from ComicsNow.com. My package has been packed and shipped, and they’ve given me the tracking number.

Funny thing is: I didn’t order anything!

Another funny thing: my birthday is a week from today. Is that it? Is this a birthday present? Who could it be from? Who remembered my birthday? It doesn’t appear on MySpace or ComicSpace (I just checked), or I could think that someone saw it there after my last post, but that’s not it.

And who knows me well enough to send me a comic book item?

This is confounding! It’s not my wife or my family. They might go to my Amazon wishlist (EEK! I better make sure it’s up to date. OK. Just did.), I could see them doing that, but not ComicsNow. I don’t even use ComicsNow…nothing against them, just that I support my local shop..so it’s not like I had a wish list.

That leaves the Monitor Duty “staff”, the readers of the site, the gang over at Dixonverse, and all my friends I’ve made in my years of running Fanzing and self-publishing. Could be Phil, Erik and Rob, the three I’ve worked closely with on Metro Med. Or maybe it’s got nothing to do with my birthday and this is just some comic company promotion.

But who would have my mailing address? My mailing address WITH THE ZIP+4 CODE? I don’t really make it public on the site, though I don’t hide what city I’m in and I’m probably findable. And like I said, I don’t have a preset gift address at ComicsNow, if they even have such a thing. So it’s not like that time I moaned about “The Tick vs. Season One” coming out on DVD just after I was laid off from my job and a kind reader of Monitor Duty went to Amazon and used my gift address to send it to me. (Yes, I still remember that. Made my month!)

I’m stumped. There are just too many candidates…and like that Tick thing, it may end up being someone I don’t even know. I have no clue what the item could be or whom it could be from.

All I know is…it’s on its way and I can track it on USPS! (Go ahead, play along with me as it heads on its way to Rochester MN.)

I just pulled it up and it said: Status: Acceptance

Someone just gave me the gift of acceptance. I’ve been waiting all my life for that!

Now…

WHAT’S IN THE PACKAGE??????