It turns out the mysterious package was a very nice chess set sent to me by Erik (thank you again I really like it), along with his opening salvo in a new chess match. He has opened with 1. d4. A Queen's Pawn Opening, a very popular, very solid, and slightly conservative opening staking white's claim to the important center squares. My response to this was 1. ... Nf6. How terribly hypermodern of me, it would appear I'd rather not play a Closed Game, but I instead want to steer this game towards some sort of Indian Defense. In any event, I haven't exactly ceded the middle to Erik, but I've opted to contest it with methods less direct than 1. ... d5.
I was tempted to try out a Dutch Defense, which would make a certain amount of sense for me given my proclivity for both the English Opening, and the Sicilian Defense, but in the end the chance to try my hand at a hypermodern style proved too tempting. Plus I have to think Erik might just be getting a little tired of seeing Semi-Open Games, and Flank Openings from me to start throwing Semi-Closed Games at him as well. Still I am much too enamored with asymmetry in chess for Erik to ever get too many Open or Closed Games from me.
I think part of the reason I favor these types of openings and defenses is due in large part to a desire not to surrender the choice of match being played. If you are playing black and respond to 1. d4 with d5, or 1. e4 with e5 your opponent is still free to try and shape to the match towards his preferred opening. So I tend to look towards the Sicilian as a response towards 1. e4, and something other than 1. ... d5 in response to a Queen's Pawn opening. The same logic applies to my choice of the English Opening when I open with 1. c4 that pretty much means that's the game that is getting played; whereas if I'd like to use a King's Gambit or say Ruy Lopez I have to open 1. e4 and hope my opponent complies with me. Obviously this isn't perfect, chess matches do transpose from one opening to another on occasion, but it is my weapon for keeping as much control of the match as I can regardless which color I'm playing.
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