What is the most exciting/depressing/life-changing thing you have ever recieved in the mail?

[Weepy Gonzales]

It can be anything you want, pertaining to zines or not.

[Carlos Palacios Hidalgo]

few weeks ago i got a package from Usa with couple of zines and inside the package was another small package with papers in different colors,shapes and sizes all ready to be use for a collage,on the outside of the package was writting : be creative!
ans i was i used all the paper this person sent me to do a nice collage :)

[twilight gecko]

a credit card..

[Dan C]

College acceptance letter/scholarship offer, perhaps.

[Lia through the looking-glass]

exciting: a massive parcel from my friend in Belgium, housewarming presents when I moved house 5 years back. I still have the stone dragon she sent, and the photo frames amongst other things.

Depressing: all the paperwork from the time my ex-partner kicked me and our daughter out.

life changing: the train tickets to the 2008 zine symposium. I'd been vaguely aware/interested before then, but that day started the love affair.

[Jenna Appleseed]

Exciting:
a parcel of Clash fan art from etsy - ordered one painting and it came with a whole load of bonus artwork & a concert on dvdr.

Getting sent a completely unexpected free copy of a Brian Jones biog (signed by Alan Clayson!), after writing about the fanclub online, and an Italian Clash covers album, after contacting the site to try and find out if it was for sale outside Italy, - a total surprise when it suddenly turned up.

Still get a buzz from getting zine's/indie magazines & books I've ordered and obscure/imported box sets or albums - especially when they come with unusual packaging &/or flyers, stickers etc.

Life changing: some of the zines I've received (the first ones especially but not just them) esp the ones focusing on alt/punk/radical expression and ways of thinking and my first non mainstream / independent albums.

and my first recordings & other gifts from the music trading/bootleg scene & somebody on a freecycle like forum giving away their old record collection & not even accepting donations towards the postage...

depressing: letters from my dad, expecting me to instantly drop everything to see him / get back in contact;
threatening letters from/re bailiffs.

[Nichole]

A story that helped me muster up the courage to quit my job.

[Dan 10things]

Depressing - A white power zine? A white power CD for review? Letters threatening violence to me based on things I wrote? Long rants of hatred? I've gotten a lot of shitty mail over the years doing a zine.

Exciting - One year Maximum Rock'n'Roll ran a profit and donated it all to other zines, they sent me a $200 check out of the blue. Fucking stoked on that one. I've gotten a lot of letters over the years from kids that say my zine really helped them out or changed their life, especially kids that lived in small towns without a lot of access to punk rock music or lefty ideas. That shit always has rocked.

[Giz]

a rotten piece of meat sent by my friends as a threat/joke.
I still didn't get the fun out of this.

[Dan 10things]

There's an interview with Mykel Bored in that "Zined" documentary where he talks about one of his fans sending him a toothpaste tube full of poop! Gross! But I think Mykel was actually sorta flattered at the effort if I remember right (it's been a decade since I watched that movie).

[Kate Haas]

The letter from the Peace Corps inviting me to go to Morocco for two years.

[KellyRose-Pulse Zine]

are you going? i've always thought about doing the peace corps

Kate Haas said:

The letter from the Peace Corps inviting me to go to Morocco for two years.

[Dr. Danny Swank]

Oh man, do you remember (Husker Du?) nine or ten years ago during that anthrax scare? Where every single person thought it was hilarious to include a tablespoon or so of flour in every letter they sent? 'Cause it was supposed to look like anthrax? Call me a bad person, but that shit cracked me up. On the other hand, it was very messy. Then again, according to the laws of algebra, comedy is more important than mess. Do the math.