Update March 18, 3:00 pm: It turns out that my friend talked to me after they read this post. They did NOT send me cookies. They DID send me shoes, and someone at USPS DID indeed steal the shoes and swap them with cookies! My friend thought I was joking when I was talking with them and I felt bad and rude to push the topic. They really, really, really do love me even more than I thought 🥰 The plot thickens… stay tuned.

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Update March 21, 12:13pm: I feel bad and sorry that I ever doubted my friend’s love and generosity for me, but it does make a hilarious story. Thankfully my friend had insurance on the package, got a refund, the real shoes arrived yesterday and the shoes are legitimately wonderful and amazing 💖

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This is a tale of running shoes, Girl Scout Cookies, deception and friendship. It all began one fine day when a friend (who shall not be named) and I started talking about running gear. The conversation went to the hypothetical and down the path of what gear we’d buy if we were going to splurge on something. I told them I’d probably buy a nice pair of shoes. I’ve always worn decent shoes but I’ve only bought last year’s models and have never spent over $75 on a pair. We started talking about what the best shoes on the market are. I conjectured that it was probably the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%, but the pink and green colors did nothing to entice me to purchase them (one must think about fashion instead of winning sometimes). I mentioned that I really liked the Nike Zoom Pegasus Turbo 2 and that they were a pretty amazing shoe overall. It was at this moment when I started to question why my friend was so interested in shoes (they aren’t a runner). My friend told me that they “knew” a person who could get a good discount on shoes and they wanted to hook me up.

I have great friends and all, but it was at this point that I got a little suspicious. I doubted that a discount on a $180 pair of Nikes could be very significant, but my friend insisted and also told me they were going to buy them for me. In the back of my head I still couldn’t believe that my friend would buy me shoes, so I told myself I’d compensate them regardless of cost. While I felt a twinge of guilt, I wasn’t about to turn down a sweet deal on a really nice pair of shoes. We talked about size (11s), color (black) and I reminded them of my address. Now all I had to do was wait patiently.

A few days later my friend told me the shoes came and that they were going to ship them my way. They even took a photo of the beautiful orange Nike box with its white swoosh on top. Patience in waiting turned into excitement and impatience. I couldn’t wait to see how these shoes would feel and kept thinking about them every day when I went running. Would they be super soft? Would long runs feel easier? Would I even wear them prior to a race, besides breaking them in a bit? Would I break my PR by a long shot? Visions of glory danced through my mind. Eventually, my friend sent me a tracking code. The shoes were coming in 2 days! 2 days meant I’d have them on a sunny long run day! Unfortunately, USPS is unreliable and the delivery day kept getting pushed. Waiting was so hard!

FINALLY, a few days late I heard the door bell ring. I knew that this was the moment I had been trying patiently to wait for. I ran upstairs, opened the front door, grabbed the package, but as soon as I grabbed it, I knew something was off. The weight seemed to be too light. The box didn’t feel right and started to bend in half. As I was tearing open the packaging I started wondering if someone had stolen the shoes, because what I found inside was 4 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies.

As I pondered the why and the logistics of how someone could swap cookies for shoes, it slowly sank into my thick skull that my friend had actually sent me cookies, not shoes. I started to laugh at how I had been completely and utterly fooled this whole time. While I could have been disappointed or mad, I knew that regardless of the contents of the package, time, thought and care was put into the gift that I greatly appreciated. It was at this moment that I knew there was only one right thing to do, proceed to eat a LOT of Girl Scout Cookies.

💖 Thanks _______ !