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so, as it turned out, my �secretpal_lj2 experience was … a bust.

so SPLJ2 is a secret pal gift exchange in which you have someone for whom you are choosing and sending out knit-related gifts, and in which in turn someone else sends you gifts. it ran for three months, during which time you were to check in with your spoilee (and be checked in with by the person spoiling you), etc. pretty much the same idea as every other secret gift exchange, except it was knitting/crochet-themed, and that part of the deal is you have to be a blogger and you have to post about the goodie boxes you receive. i sent my secret pal a gift box in june, and she got it and appeared to like it, from the post she made about it. i sent her a goodie box for july, and apart from a response to my inquiry about whether or not she’d received it (after i started to worry it was lost), never heard anything more. i sent off the third and final goodie box, for august, and … according to the post office tracking information it has never even been picked up. so that was sort of a bust. it was extremely disappointing to me to put together neat little presents for someone — i’m not even talking about the money; i mean the paying attention to her blog and interests and trying to come up with entertaining gifts she’d enjoy — and just get ignored. i suppose the final package will probably get returned to me by the post office, one of these days. but that was just part of the problem. apparently not only did my spoilee completely check out of the game, but the person who was supposed to spoil me did as well. i got a marvellous june goodie box… and then never anything at all. in short, i got ditched. i contacted the mod, once it became quite clear that a july goodie box was not in the cards; she said she assigned me an emergency backup secret pal, and that i should contact her if i failed to hear from the new person. which, naturally, was exactly what happened: not a peep. well, i forgot about getting in touch with her and so i didn’t let her know that i hadn’t heard from the backup pal by the 5th of the month as she had asked, but about a week later. at that point, i was disappointed but not completely despondant about the entire mess, and even volunteered to be an “angel” — i.e., be an emergency backup secret pal for someone who gets ditched — in the next round. but then i never even heard back from the mod, which was just sort of insulting. if you’re going to brag on the community about how much fun and wonderful this gift exchange you’re running is… really, when someone has a truly rotten experience, can’t you summon even the energy to apologize for said experience? it’s not like i was asking for abject grovelling: it’s email, i’ll never know that you don’t actually care. just, y’know, pretend for five minutes in front of your email client. needless to say, i will not be participating in the third livejournal secret pal exchange. it was just too deeply annoying to check the comm and my spoilee’s blog every day, faithfully, waiting to see when she got her packages, and see everyone else posting about the thoughtful things their pals had sent them — even only cheerful e-cards and fun little things that didn’t actually cost their pal to do — when i was dumped by both sides. you know, seriously, it’s bad enough luck to be dumped or to get an utterly uncaring spoilee, but to get both at once? then the person who’s volunteered to step in in the event of a dumping proceeds to dump me too?? i mean, what the hell? who did i piss off in the Knitters’ Fates Main Control Office? i swear i’ll finish that pair of blue socks if this is what happens when you abandon a wip! but, putting all that aside: i still think it would be fun to buy someone neat little presents, so i signed up for the next (real) Secret Pal exchange (the one the LJ version was based on — this one is much larger and international). it doesn’t start until next month sometime, but that’s all right. maybe i’ll finish those socks by then.