Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Unexpected Surprise!

I got home from work yesterday, as the mercury was busting past 100 degrees here in NC, and what do I see on the front porch? No, not the dry cleaning (which comes every Tuesday and Friday if we've put the bag out previously). Is that a small Fed-Ex box I spy? It is, it. I can barely make out the return address upside, so I pick it up. As I make out the faint name on the receipient's copy of the receipt, I smile.

It's from Mike O'Connell. You know Mike - surely you've visited one of his two blogs, both linked off my main page there at the lower right. He's my buddy whom I met through the pages of the Clobberin' Times and then, finally, in person when I attended the San Diego Comic-Con back in 1999. At the time he and his roommate Aaron were living in San Diego; Mike's since moved to Sacramento and Aaron to Seattle. My first thought seeing the box: what in the world did he pick up for me at the Comic-Con a week or so ago?

So, put the box on the kitchen counter and take a knife to open up one end. Peeling back the end, I reveal the treasure inside. Or, as Mike's note says "Con goodies!!!" (yes, he used three exclamation points)

The first item is a Comic-Con exclusive Heroes DVD box. The idea is when the season 1 DVDs come out at the end of August, you can take them out of the box they came in and put them into this exclusive box you've put together. Pretty neat. Mike's note says it was a giveaway at the Heroes panel. He knows how much I love Heroes. I can't wait for the fall when the show comes back on - but be warned, I'll be blogging about it weekly like the geek I am.

Okay, next the note tells me to check out the pages of the book. What's the book? Battlestar Galactica: Resurrection in hardcover from 2001. It is a new novel based on the Universal TV series from the 70's. Who is one of the co-authors? None other than "Apollo" himself, Richard Hatch! Flipping a few pages, per the notes instructions, and I see Mike had it autographed, to me, by the man himself! How damn cool is that? Richard flippin' Hatch!

I guess I have to sidenote here. Back in 2001 we hit the Con and attended a panel discussion Mr. Hatch was doing. While he did talk about Galactica and got the love from the fans, he was there to tell everyone to never stop short of your dreams. Yes, Richard Hatch is now a motivational speaker. We loved it. We coined the phrase "what would Richard Hatch do?" (w.w.R.H.d.?), a spin-off from the South Park movie's song "what would Brian Boytano do?". Well, that little in-joke phrase stuck (Mike even put in his note "what would he do?"). Next year in 2002, we saw Hatch was on the schedule to do a panel. We decided to go - Sunday morning 'service' with the reverand Richard. Guess what? Same damn motivational speech. We loved it!

Anyway, because of all this, Mike surely knew what having an autographed book from Hatch would mean to me. That, my friends, is a great friend! Not only did he take the time to get the book (and the other items like promo cards from the Topps booth), he waited in a line to get it autographed and he Fed-Ex'ed it to me too. Why? Just because he knew the surprise would make my day (and it did!).

Mike, you rock!

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