The Year of Taking - Julie England and the Kearns High School Band

Wow! The Year of Taking had a banner day today.  I am so excited about what I 'took' today that I can hardly stand it.

Background: my friend Julie Ward England lives in Utah and her son, allegedly, is in a band. I say allegedly because I don't even know if she has a son or if she just made that up for the Facebook scheme she is spearheading to get people to donate money to the Kearns High School Band.  I don't even know if Kearns High School exists but Julie sent me a spiffy flyer for an upcoming band concert so lets assume that the school exists but I have no idea if there is really a concert coming up or if Julie has developed an enterprising idea to line her pockets with a little cash.  That Julie is a slippery one so it's hard to say.

I told Julie I would contribute to her ponzi scheme band booster club and so I sent her a check for $5 million dollars the other day.  (OK maybe slightly less than that) In return, Julie let me "take" a few items from her. First, you have to see the envelope because at least Julie knows to call me the Empress unlike some people named Stephanie who can't seem to get the hang of my new title.

The back of the envelope is equally awesome with tons of stickers to jazz it up a little. Julie knows a little something about correspondence:

Inside the envelope here are the things I get to take from Julie:

1. A See's Candy Coupon good for 1 pound of chocolate that was supposedly given to Julie by a grateful patient (she is a RN).   I love See's and hope to be able to use this coupon very soon but what is awesome about this coupon is that I am pretty sure it's been regifted a few times. Note that it says to "Belida" not to "Julie".  So either Julie has an alias (possible, given her track record with the law) or this coupon has been passed around a bit.

2. One Starbuck's gift card. Awesome. Love it.  My metabolism is fueled mainly by caffeine so this is great for me.

3. One "gently used" saxaphone reed.  For those of you who don't know much about band instruments let me explain that saxaphone reeds are what go in the saxaphone player's mouth. They get all spit-covered and gross.  While I will "take" anything I can get during the Year of Taking I am pretty sure the joke is on me here.  For all I know the kid who used this had a cold, or malalria, or something even worse and now I have become infected just by opening the envelope. Or maybe Julie found it on the ground or something. Who knows? But, I say "Well played Julie, well played".

Here is Julie's letter in which she explains the things I am "taking" off her hands:

Here is my loot:

**In case you are wondering why the photo of the gift certificates and the sax reed appears to be upside down, the answer is that I have no clue. It was right side up when I saved it and then it appeared upside down on my blog. I have no idea how to fix this so if you have any complaints you can keep it to yourself...what do I look like to you, some kind of computer engineer?

I have to give Julie props for being the most creative contributor to The Year of Taking so far.  This was very funny stuff and I love that. Thanks for playing along Julie!

I wonder how much a "gently used saxaphone reed" would sell for on Ebay...?