15459, 15456

I was perhaps not necessarily looking forward to unpacking several boxes of books, but it was nevertheless a relief to get a call this morning, telling me that the shipment I sent from California in August would be arriving at my home here in Iceland today.

Friends had warned me this was a risky, time consuming, potentially catastrophic endeavor, but I took no heed. So my stuff was first shipped to Singapore, so what? So it was "consolidated" there with other stuff coming here to Iceland, no big deal. Perhaps a bit circuitous, a bit complicated, but I figured it would all work out in the end.

Well, well, what should arrive today at my lovely, icy front step, but 7 boxes, all nicely labeled with the name and address of someone in . . . BRAZIL! 7 was not a lucky number for this stranger in Brazil, whose fate is now inexplicably tied in with my own.

An email to the shipping company reveals that there were two shipments from Oakland, California, one destined for Brazil, the other one destined for Iceland, one labeled 15456, the other one labeled 15459. Either in Oakland, or Singapore, or Iceland, somewhere in the wide world, 15459 became 15456, and vice versa.

Since I am also in the process of organizing my office, I am thinking that for good luck sake, I should hang all my files in reverse alphabetical order now. Maybe putting the Z file up front will reverse the shipping mojo.

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