Things YOU See At Night Swap

The other night I was coming home late and I heard some loud, strange noises. As I got out of my car, I looked around cautiously, and saw two HUGE racoons chasing each other and playing down near the edge of the pond that borders my property.

I am an anthropologist by training, and so this got me thinking about the different things people see at night.

For this swap you will have 2 partners and you will mail each 3 items, each of which is related to what YOU see at night in YOUR life.

• One should be handmade.
• One should be a purchased-type item.
• One should be any random item.

And include a note or letter which explains the things you are including. Tell some story about them. I am making this swap international, because I would love to see what others around the world see in their own night.

Please note the swap title. It is things YOU see at night. For instance... stars and moons? EVERYONE sees those at night. But what do YOU see? So for example, I see racoons. I could send my partner some racoon notecards, racoon stickers, or a little racoon figurine. I could make a racoon collage or ATC. I could make some stamped notecards if I have a racoon stamp. I could hand carve a racoon stamp.

Here are some other examples, just from MY life:

• I always do my laundry at the local laundromat at night. They sell custom laundry bags and other items with their logo. They have a business card and a brochure. I could also take a picture of the place. Or heck, any laundry-related item would work.
• I prefer to take showers and baths at night. There may be a particular bath product with a logo/package that I am usually looking at, at night.
• The Oprah Show reruns here at 11:00 pm, so to me it is a late night show I watch before going to bed, and I usually record it. I might burn a DVD with 2-3 episodes of that show, or any show I watch in the evenings. Or send a copy of or an article from the O Magazine,w hich I read before bed. Or I might make a collage out of things I've cut only from my old issues.
• Maybe my boyfriend and I only see each other after work and we go to this particular restaurant for dinner -- so you might get a menu or business card from there.
• On other nights, I tend to cook dinner after dark because I get home late. Maybe I will send you a cooking utensil or one of my favorite recipes.

There are certain streets I drive down, certain businesses I go to, ceratin night clubs and/or bands, certain products, certain experiences that I have, at night [and I don't mean naughty things! that's all fun, but I mean this to be a bit more challenging LOL].

For a heart, you want to check your partner's profile and somehow COMBINE the challenge of what YOU see at night with THEIR preferences. For instance, if my partner says she collects stationary, I will find her some notecards with racoons on them, rather than sending her a little figurine. If my partner enjoys cooking, I may send her a recipe that I used last evening. If your partner lists they really like celestial things, go ahead and send something related to stars/moons. This can make things a bit more challenging but also fun and creative.

The random item part can be anything you want -- how about a snapshot of your feet in your fabulous club-going shoes? Or a snapshot of your baby sleeping. A package of some snack food you eat while watching a movie. A Netflix envelope with a list of your most recently watched DVDs. A packet of the herbal tea you drink before bed -- this swap is what you SEE so that would probably relate to the packaging, not the flavor of the tea itself. Be creative. Look around your own life.

One final note -- this is a swap for actual things that YOU see or have seen, not fantasy things related to night time. For example, on my profile I indicate that I love vampires, which I do, and I also love cemetaries, voodoo, etc. However, I never see one of the bloodsuckers lounging about when I get out of my car. And I never go into cemetaries at night, because it's illegal. And so forth.

So I want this swap to be an actual excavation of what each person sees at night. Night falls at different hours at different times of the years, so I will be flexible about the times. But try and restrict it to anything after the sun goes down. Except... try and keep it rated G. [Not that I wouldn't be amused by a rated R swap item, but we're sending to people we don't know, here.]

Any questions? Need help or ideas? PM me!