mr. postman, look and see if there's a letter in your bag for me

[day four: your mailbox]

living in an apartment building, we have one of those big boxy mailboxes for the building that has twelve boxes in one. i live on the third floor and it's in the middle of the first, under the stairs. this makes it convenient to check the mail on my way back home before i go up.

i've mentioned it a million times on here before, but i don't get much mail even though i love getting it. our mailbox is usually filled with the week's coupons, ads, and super savers. then there are some credit card offers and bills. a lot of the mail we get is for my father-in-law (he moved overseas and has his mail forwarded to us) which makes me slightly jealous even if it is mostly junk mail.

i get the occasional card from my grandma and the announcement from mason, but there are two consistent pieces of mail that i get every month: my writer's digest and a spanish pork catalog. the writer's digest was expected, but i still have no idea why i'm getting the spanish pork one, seeing as i'm not spanish and don't eat pork. and it's not like some random junk catalog. it's an actual subscription. i think someone may have signed me up as a joke or something? i dunno. but they do have these stuffed olives that i kinda wanna try. they're stuffed with things like anchovies and peppers that i've never heard of and actually sound really good. i love olives. so, whoever subscribed me to spanish pork, thanks.

*Please Mr. Postman - The Marvelettes

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

brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things

this morning, i made peanut butter cookies. i have a really bad history with homemade peanut butter cookies. they either turn out way to salty (we had this cookie recipe book that apparently thought salt was the best flavor for every cookie under the sun) or like watery and gross (that was when my sister made them) or something else goes wrong. but today's cookies were fantastic. the fact that there are only two left from the two and a half dozen that came out of the oven this morning can attest to that. the recipe is officially going into my favorites. oh, and i also think that my oven has decided to like me (finally), so there's that. overall a successful day for baking.

completely switching gears here, but for the last five or so years of my life, i have been known to ask hopefully every time anyone checks the mail if there is anything for me. there rarely ever is, and when i do get mail it's usually a credit card offer. sad, i know. but lately, the mail has been quite exciting for me. for the past week, i have opened the mail box to find packages from my grandma. packages! for me! is there anything more exciting? (well, except for the fact that she seem to alternate between spelling my name with and without the "h" at the end when i am definitely an h kinda person, but i forgive her because i'm understanding like that.) they have mostly been stuff about travel and attractions (i think she's trying to tell me something) and my list of places i must see before i die has grown ridiculously. i also got a prize for a raffle i won (free little gym membership for my nephew) and coupons for free ice cream and it's just all over wonderful.

speaking of raffles and winning, i've noticed that i've become luckier since my marriage. i can count the number of contests and raffles i won before i got married on one hand and still use that hand pretty well. but whenever i mention the fact that i'm married now, i win. case in point: i filled out a survey when in first got married (it was the first time i put my status as married on a form. huge moment.) and won one of the three gift cards to the gap they were giving out. case in point: i filled out a raffle ticket at a fall festival recently and had to put my "spouse's name" and ended up winning one hundred and thirty five dollars worth of gym classes for my nephew. i'm trying to think of a third case in point to make myself sound more convincing, but i really don't  get the opportunity to enter many raffles.

anyway, good cookies, packages, and raffle luck. my day (read: week) went well.

*My Favorite Things - The Sound of Music Soundtrack

you took me by surprise

i got a package this morning and my sister told me not to open it because she ordered something for my birthday and it still hasn't come and she wants to see me open it or something. i'm expecting a couple of packages, too, but i was fairly certain that a few books would not need such a big box. i go to pick up my sister from school, and we get home after eleven (like five or ten minutes ago). my sister looks at the box and says, "oh, that's not your present." so i open it expecting books or something. especially when there's the big box has a smaller box inside it wrapped with bubble wrap and surrounded by paper. it wasn't books. it was a tea set. a totally unexpected tea set that i have never seen before. ordinarily, i would just assume it was from my grandmother, but she's already sent me like a gazillion gifts recently and there's just no reason for her to have gotten me anything else. plus, i talked to her like two days ago and she didn't mention anything and she usually does. plus, my name was spelled wrong and she's sent enough letters and packages to know how to spell my name. i'll ask her about it tomorrow, but right now i'm confused. so, i am now the owner of a pretty new tea set with no idea where i got it from. thanks to whoever sent it.

*Everything Will Be Alright - The Killers

we fail at everything we ever even try to attempt

so this morning i wrote a post and drafted it (because apparently i'm incapable of publishing anymore?) that was basically talking about how unproductive and worthless at life i was being... because i get like that sometimes. anyway, right now i feel like i completely turned this day around, so let's compare, shall we?

this morning i said that because our internet played dead for most of yesterday i had an assignment due tonight that i wasn't even started on. i totally finished that assignment in an hour, wrote the report for it, and submitted it earlier than on time. i rock.

i also said that i was "going nowhere really, really fast" in my pathetic nanowrimo attempt. i've switched stories a few times which is technically frowned upon and would get seven hundred words or so into something before hitting a ginormous brick wall and deciding that i just couldn't continue. after a very productive writing session with the awesome Ash (or The Flea if you read other people's comments on my blog) and forcing myself to stick with one story (though i'm not even sure how good it is or if i can write fifty thousand words on it) i am four thousand plus words in. yes, still technically behind, but whatever. i'm doing better than you. (unless i'm not in which case please don't mention it to me because you'll just make me feel bad.)

i also said that there were a few emails i've been putting off writing for weeks now and some stuff i needa send to our apparently very disorganized cultural mission (because they had all of this a month and a half ago. what did they do? eat it?) to quiet their threats to stop my monthly money. okay, so this still needs to be done but that's okay.

i also went to class and forgot my notebook so i paid attention. it's amazing the things you learn when you're not doodling and writing out short stories while some guy at the front rambles on. i also got fifteen postcards written for the postcard exchange i am doing. i'm gonna write the last four tonight and then send them all out tomorrow. i have some extra ones so if you would like to get a postcard from me, send me your address (comment/email/formspring/whatever) and i will send it out because snail mail is awesome and you all deserve some awesomeness in your lives. it doesn't matter if you live across the street from me or across the world, send me your address and i'll send you a card.

finally, my sister is a loser and wasn't answering my calls so i scrapped my plans to go out for dinner (though i've been craving broccoli and cheese soup for weeks now) and ate on campus. i decided to try a new flavor vitamin water and the facebook created flavor (black cherry-lime) was suggested to me. can i just say, EWWW. facebook people, what in the world were you thinking? it tastes like i'm drinking cough syrup mixed with gasoline. every sip makes me sicker (because yes i'm finishing it and getting my money's worth. plus i'm thirsty and don't feel like walking back to the convenience store.) blech.

oh wait, this is the final thought: i'm using the title i was gonna use this morning because a) i don't feel like thinking of a new one and b) i was just listening to the song. no i don't care that it no longer fits with the post.

*The Future Freaks Me Out - Motion City Soundtrack

a long time ago, we used to be friends

like most people, we have this dude that delivers our mail to us. him and i used to be friends. we would wave to each other when we passed the other on the road. we would exchange pleasantries when he had something big to deliver to our door. i always had only the best to say about him. and then... then this semester happened.

it all started when i was waiting for my dvds of primeval. amazon told me they were delivered, but i most definitely did not have them. (i mentioned this in my blog before.) anyways, i went to the mail people asking where my stuff was. the next morning, it was on our doorstep. before the mail came. opened and retaped shut. my dvds were all still in their plastic wrap so i brushed it off. i mean, nothing was missing or damaged so whatever, right?

then, i get a letter from my grandma in the mail. it contained several pages of edits for my book, so it was kinda thick. it was also opened before it got to me. but the edits and card were all still there so i continued to think the best of people and said maybe it magically got opened in the mailbox or something. whatever.

one of my latest amazon orders was shipped to my sister's house (mainly because i didnt wanna hear another fatherly lecture about how i was wasting my money, but also because my brother's birthday present was in it and i didnt want him to know it was delivered). it was still in my name, though. one part of the shipment said it was delivered march first. thing is, it wasnt. you know when it was delivered? today. or yesterday i guess since there's no mail on sunday, but she got it today. that's almost a whole week since the postal service said they delivered it.

i had to send my transcript to my scholarship advisor person recently. i sent it almost two weeks ago. i was getting annoyed because she kept saying that she hadn't received it and she needed it and stuff. yesterday, i get it back in the mail. it was opened. in red ink on the front was written 'wrong envelope.' umm what?? how can an envelope be wrong?? it was a normal white envelope that i send everything in all the time. how come it was never wrong before?? and why was it opened??

holding someone's mail is a federal offence. opening someone's mail is a federal offence. you'd think that working for the post office he would know that. so you know what, mr. postman? me and you are over. i will no longer wave or smile or say anything to you. when i think of you, my thoughts will be acerbic.

i tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you didnt want it, so just leave my mail alone.

*We Used to be Friends - The Dandy Warhols