Hunting down Mr. Alex

One afternoon during lunch hour, my hotel phone rings. It was the front desk calling to tell me that I have some letters with them for a couple of days now. I then collected the letters from front desk before going back to office.

One of the letter was from a close friend, how sweet of her to send me a Christmas card so far away from home. Aww...so touched...

Another one was a letter from Alex Bereson, posted using a used envelope with many pieces of US stamps and with San Francisco postage chop dated 3 Dec 2007. My god! How long has the hotel kept this letter?

It was addressed to me (with first name followed by last name, American style), with hotel address and my room number. As I was driving back to company with the letter still sealed, I was trying to guess what this letter is about and who would have send me a letter from San Francisco? I don't know any Alex from SF. Inside the envelope, I can feel something hard, like a cardboard.

Back to the office, I opened up the envelope to find a folded cardboard inside and sandwiched in between the folded cardboard is a First Day Cover from 1993. There's no note or message in the envelope.

Very nice first day cover (FDC) from year 1993

I had been a stamp and FDC collector for many years now, but I'm not the extreme collector type coz I have too many hobbies, not enough time and money to take it too seriously. Part of me was really happy in receiving the FDC but the problem is, I don't know who was it from. Who is Mr. Alex? And who's this William guy who had his name on the FDC? The scary part is, how did he know what hotel I'm staying and the room number I'm in?!!

Seeing that the FDC stamp was from New York, the only person that pops into my mind is Dave. Dave is a friend I know from stamp-collecting. I've known him for more than 2 years now and he's from New York. Just before the New Year of 2008, I sent him a postcard wishing him a happy new year and letting him know that I'm in San Jose. I sign-off that postcard with my name and the email address I use to contact with him. I never mention anything about my room number nor the hotel I'm staying in. So I don't think it is Dave who send this FDC to me.

This is a mystery waiting to be solved. Other than the sender's name, Alex Bereson, the address of sender was also included at the front of the envelope. It is a SF address. I think the only way to find out who Alex is, is to drive to the address and look for him.

Don't think I dare to do that lor...