A friend made an avatar for me, said it would be waiting for me when I logged in...

[Ariel Vuissent]

Check your recent items and see if it's there. If your friend sent it to you, you should have gotten a notification about it and the option to keep or discard what was sent. If you didn't, check your inventory for items you don't recognize, or ask your friend what they named it and search your inventory that way. If it's not there, it probably got lost in transit, or your friend was unable to send it to you.

[Ariel Vuissent]

Check your recent items and see if it's there. If your friend sent it to you, you should have gotten a notification about it and the option to keep or discard what was sent. If you didn't, check your inventory for items you don't recognize, or ask your friend what they named it and search your inventory that way. If it's not there, it probably got lost in transit, or your friend was unable to send it to you.

[Nalates Urriah]

The answer to this question really depends on what it is your friend made.

It may be that he/she made and OUTFIT for you. This would consist of a shape, skin, hair, and clothes. It could be sent to you in pieces or in a package/box. In which case, you should have gotten a notice as Ariel says.

If you use RECENT in your inventory to try and find the package, you may need to look at the bottom of the Inventory panel and click the Gear Icon. Look for Show Filters. Change the date so you are looking for RECENT items within the time frame you would have received it. 

The RECENT search tends to only tell you about newly acquired items since the last login... last in prior to the current. You can change the time frame for recent in Show Filters, which can be pretty handy.

We have another type of Avatar now. It is a sort of replacement avatar made from 'mesh'. But, it too would come to you as a package.

Without knowing how knowedgable your friend is about SL I can't say whether or not they thought they could make you an account and setup an avatar for you. So, you may be walking around as the avatar they setup. Your friend would have had to provide you an ID and Password for that to work. 

If that is the case, they are technically in violation of the ToS. But, if no paymnet data was added to the account, your taking over the account probably won't be noticed. If this is the case, change the login password ASAP.

[Marigold Devin]

Welcome to Second Life, and to Second Life Answers, HerculesSonOfZeus.

I am thinking that you haven't yet downloaded the viewer to your computer, and have just logged into the website so far.

If this is the case, please download the Second Life viewer by clicking on this link and following the instructions...

https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/

As the viewer downloads to your computer, please keep watching the screen, for some basic information will be shown to you.  At the end of the download you may be given the option to log in.  You can do so, or you can use the Second Life icon that will appear on your desktop once the downloading of the viewer has completed.

The first time that you log in to Second Life, you will see your avatar, and will be taken through a very brief orientation process.  Please take your time to learn these very basic steps. 

Welcome to a whole new world! Have fun, and remember to come back here with any questions you have.