I've Got Mail

It's been a banner day or two around our household as far as packages go. I love getting mail, especially packages, but I rarely look for them anymore. Back when I was what we would now call a tween (I was just a "kid" then), I had about a dozen pen pals and got letters and packages regularly.

Yes, a dozen: a few relatives (mainly my dear Aunt P); three friends from the Star Wars fan club; a pen pal in Greece through the International Pen Friends Association (I'll include her name here, Martha Bitsopoulou, in case she ever finds me--we got separated after years of correspondence and even two trans-Atlantic visits); friends from summer camp counseling; and finally a few friends who had moved away. And this was before email.

I had boxes of different cards and sheets of stationery, rubber stamps, stickers, return address labels, my own embosser. I'd write notes sitting on my bed with my lap desk (either my rainbow one or my blank of wood one from, get this, Vacation Bible School, during the one year or so I was a Southern Baptist. I should post about that sometime.)

But high school, then college, grad school, and beyond decreased both my correspondents and my correspondence, so that today I'm lucky if I mail Christmas cards and birthday notes. Though, I'm okay enough on email (somedays).

But I still love to get mail. I get excited when it's magazine week (all dozen of my subscriptions seem to arrive the same week, creating quite a backlog; I wish it were more spread out). I like my mail from England, often with interesting articles or info about places I'd love to visit (Lambeth, I really liked that page with the cooking things--the train cake mold is cute, and I can get it here). My Aunt P still writes me real letters frequently and I love to send her beautiful handwriting on a card. My mom and dad's cards now go to the kids but I like watching them get excited about mail so we always make a big deal of it, especially because they can now recognize (7 times out of 10) which name is theirs (mind you, they share 3 letters. And no, not "D").

And this week I've gotten a ton of packages: 4 from a friend in Chicago who has sent along some of things from the estate of our friend who died of breast cancer--some books, an afghan I'd made for her partner (the partner kept the afghan I'd made for the woman who was ill), and a poster about ways to subvert the patriarchy (this last will be framed and go in our bathroom, the only dykey thing in the whole house--and our dear Chicago friend loved theme bathrooms! Hers had fishing and fish.); then we got a new battery for my laptop, just today, which will hopefully improve its performance (and let us do webcam with Gommie again); also, my Pampered Chef stuff showed up (okay, technically it didn't come in the mail, but it was delivered to my house); and, finally, my church cookbook starter kit came (I'm heading up the church cookbook, no surprise, right?). I think there was one other one but I can't recall. I just know there have been a lot--it's practically like Christmas with UPS, DHL, and USPS coming to the door.

I might have to start sending more real mail--that's the best way to get some--because, as much as I like getting email, real mail, especially packages (even if I've paid for them), is best.