Sunday, November 20, 2011

write me a letter, write it today

there are very few people that would ever call me an optimist. i'm generally not one to buoy myself up with false hopes, but there is one time that i just cannot seem to suppress them, though i know deep inside they are most likely to come crashing down. every time i walk to the mailbox - and this has been going on for years - i will inflate the bubble of hope that there will be something there for me. something good. more often than not, i am wrong. on a good day, i might get a credit card offer. most days, though, find the mailbox filled with things for everyone else. it's very crushing. i recently starting receiving spanish pork catalogs. i'm still confused about them seeing as i'm not spanish, don't eat pork, and never signed up for them. but once a month one will be delivered to our mailbox with my name neatly printed on the back.

i was not always so mail deprived. once upon a time i was a little girl who would receive mail on a regular basis. and good mail, too. i had a few pen pals when i was younger, and it was great. looking back, my letters were formulaic, boring, and pretty pathetic. after the salutation, i always started with a mention of the weather. always. it was either, "the weather here has been warm lately. how is the weather over there?" or "the weather here has started to get cold. how is the weather over there?" sad, i  know. but i was only like eight. give me a break. regardless of the fact that the letters were nothing to write home about, i wrote them regularly. every time i would get a reply from one of my pen pals, i would run to my room, pull out my stationary - which i used to have lots of - and start a reply. it would be in the mail the next day and then i'd wait for a reply back.

the recipients of my letters were an odd bunch: my great grandfather, my mom's great aunt, and my grandmother's first grade teacher are among the most prominent in my mind. sometimes along with the letters they would send little treats - a bookmark or an eraser - that would make my day. the teacher used to send my sisters and i big packages full of old jewelry and books. they were great.

the point is, i grew up having a really good relationship with the mail. i developed expectations that, fifteen years later, have yet to die, though all of my pen pals have. (is that too blunt of a sentence? i cringed a little when writing it.) i miss the thrill of getting handwritten letters in the mail, the excitement of getting a glimpse into another's life, even if that other was literally ten times my age. i miss getting good mail. i need to find myself some new pen pals is what i'm thinking.

oh, and i went to see cirque du soleil: qidam yesterday. i felt that it should be mentioned to, if for no other reason, make sure it is remembered.

*Write Me a Letter - Aerosmith

6 comments:

  1. anonymous hippopotamusNovember 20, 2011 at 9:23 AM

    who's the great aunt? tattie jennie? I don't remember writing her letters...I only remember her being dead. lol

    and i laughed at qidam cuz it sounds like an arabic word. don't judge im sleep deprived.

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  2. yeah tattie jennie was the great aunt, and i used to write to her for a while. you don't remember going to her house and seeing all the statues of crucified jesus with blood and stuff? those things gave me nightmares forever.

    um... that's not funny.

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  3. I need new pen pals... Used to write to people all the time as a kid - then the internet came along

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  4. anonymous hippopotamusNovember 21, 2011 at 8:12 AM

    sarah...meet hannah. hannah...meet Sarah. I now pronounce you pen pals. haha

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  5. if you're looking for a pen pal in america, i'm your man... or girl or whatever.

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  6. I would... but I'm really bad at sticking to things. Can give it a go though :)

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