Friday, September 28, 2007

South Africa Loves Me

One of my lurkers recently emailed me to ask for an invite to read this blog, and she mentioned that she heard about my blog through the South African version of Cosmopolitan magazine.

What?!

I was not aware of this, so I asked for more details. She told me the issue it appeared in, and so I sent an email to its editor asking for a copy of the article. I was so glad to open my email today and find that the editor sent me a PDF of the article! I guess they have a "Hot Stuff" section in each issue, and for the month of August, my blog was the "Hot Blog". WOOT!!

I have been wondering why my statcounter shows so many hits from South Africa. And now I know. I'm famous there!

I tried to figure out how to post a copy of the article here for you, but it's in PDF, which Blogger does not support. I also looked into putting it on Google Docs, and then linking to it from here. Again, no such luck--the little blurb about my blog disappeared when I converted it into txt format. So you are going to have to take my word for it. But here's what it said:

"We love it because she gives us insight into the naive yet neurotic world of a 20-something American country girl. She’s a complete pink-packaged anomaly, confessing that her
musical taste goes from hip-hop to rock and country music –and her musings range from the arb to the occasionally substantial. But a weird thing happens to you when you’re reading – you start to see patterns in her life that also exist in yours, almost 14, 000 km away."

Hmmm. It sounds like they haven't read too much of my blog. I rarely talk about music on here. And I'm not quite sure why they think of me as a "country" girl. I also do not know what they mean by "pink-packaged anomaly", but I like that they describe me as a naive yet neurotic girl! LOL , that's pretty accurate. Not a glowing review, but a good one, at least.

Maybe I need to get one of those tshirts that say: "I'm kind of a big deal."

Ha Ha!

Talking about South Africa reminds me of a story about my dad, actually. My parents met at work in Washington, DC. But right before they met, WLF had to take a business trip to South Africa, which as you know is home to many diamond mines.

Since they were so cheap, WLF decided to buy some while he was there. Although he was divorced at the time, he hoped he'd get married again one day and could give a diamond to a new wife in an engagement ring. The back-up plan was that he'd just end up giving them to his sister or his oldest daughter (my older half-sister, Banana). So he bought two or three of them.

Due to customs regulations, he was not allowed to bring back the biggest one with him on the plane. It had to be shipped to him. He said that would be fine, and so he left his address with the diamond salesman.

He arrived back in the States and meets the new mail girl, who also happened to be my mother. It's love at first sight, and he begins to pursue her relentlessly (remember, he asked her out to lunch every day for a YEAR before she said yes!). Meanwhile, the diamond is getting shipped to him.

One day, he goes to get his mail out of the mailbox. Inside is a plain white envelope, with a hand-written address. The return address read: Capetown, South Africa. He opened it easily, because it was just licked like any regular envelope would be. Inside was the diamond. No wrapping, no insurance, no letter, nada. Just a plain envelope with a 3 carat diamond inside. It had been mailed halfway across the world without being lost or stolen. It was pretty incredible, actually, if you think about how many hands must have handled that envelope.

About 2 years later, it was put into The Czarina's engagement ring.

Cool story, huh?

19 comments:

teahouse said...

Wow!! That is an awesome story!!

Very different from when my Fiance ordered my ring. Apparently he had it shipped high-priority super FedEx with tracking, confirmation of receipt and insurance and all of the bells and whistles. And apparently he bit his nails to a pulp waiting for it to arrive.

Phantom Hater said...

I've decided I'm getting an engagement ring from Wal-mart for the lucky girl who gets to marry me someday. I'll put a Target sticker on the box so she won't know.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4887125

Who says you can't put a price on love? $1,460.00. That's the price of love, baby.

GrewUpRural said...

Sweet story.

kimmykins13 said...

Really neat story! I didn't realize you had step siblings. I always thought - Wow, the Czarina sure did have a bunch of babies. This being based on "The Fam" - cast of characters.

Meghan (The Declaration of MY Independence) said...

Holy crap 3 carats!!!! Wow, mom is one lucky gal!

cmk said...

My hubby sent me a necklace from the Middle East when he was there in the Navy. The chain is 18K gold and the pendant is 24K. He put it inside of the envelope with a letter he had written and I, too, got it with no problem. Later we realized that he MAY have done wrong by not paying customs or what have you. :)

A really neat story--I wonder if the same thing could be done today with no problems?

Len said...

that's very funny... because i think i know the "lurker" you're talking about... I read her blog and actually found her over a comment she left on AwkwardThingsISayToGirls! The world is SO small...

crackfire said...

Amazing story as you have mentioned before your parents do have some interesting anecdotes up there sleevs

wearingthepants said...

Congrats on the magazine article! And wow, that certainly is an amazing story.

Mieke said...

That story was amazing! I loved it!!
And how cool you are "famous" in South Africa. Your like a international celebrity! Woo Hoo!
By the way, how is cn doing?
No news for like days???

don said...

Africa has Cosmo,.. And they think you are a country girl?

Virginia Belle said...

teahouse-- aw, that is sweet! it was so important to him!!! that's the best excuse i've ever heard for having bloody fingernails! LOL

PH-- it's a good thing we all know you have a good sense of humor, PH. otherwise, i think you'd be getting lectured right now!

grewuprural -- oh yeah. i have some really good stories about my parents, actually. most of them are funny.

kimmykins -- yeah, i guess i need to explain my fam a little...sorry!

meghan -- dude, it's not like getting 3 carats over here. it's MEGA cheap to buy them directly from the mines. i'm sure it was like, at LEAST 50% cheaper. so don't get too excited!

cmk-- ah! that is a cool story!! i wonder how much jewelry comes into the states "illegally" in that way??

len-- isn't it??? i have so many small world stories. i need to blog some of them.

crackfire-- oh yes, there are more where those came from!

wearingthepants -- thanks!!

mieke -- CN is still wonderful! not much to report, actually....

don-- see, that's what I'M saying!

kimmykins13 said...

Ooops, I meant half siblings

Becky at lifeoutoffocus said...

that is super cool! i always wonder who lurks on my blog from other places?! how do you see where you got hits from?

Anonymous said...

yay! thanks for adding me to your list of readers :) That's wild that you're famous in South America... You totally need a shirt that says "I'm famous on the internet" :)

Phantom Hater said...

You're famous in other places too, VB. Just the other day I heard a group of sailors stationed in Florida talking about you. Different reasons of course, but hey, fame is fame. ;)

(M)ary said...

omg. that is fantastic!
way to represent. you stand for American neurotic women all over the nation. no pressure or anything.

Alison said...

Where are you? We need an update already!

Phantom Hater said...

VB is busy rolling around in a giant batch of chocolate-chip cookie dough with CN and can't blog at the moment.