Ketchup, or the art of catching up

Here I was, feeling so fine with my LetterMo postcard method down, my several new recipients, and my pile of waiting postcards to send - and it's a week later and what have I done? For whatever reason, the long Presidents Day weekend throws a wrench into my rhythm. I managed to get through it without missing a day, but barely. I may have just gotten through today on a technicality, in fact.


Sent Feb 11:

After my grandmother's service last month, my mom gave me some more postcards from her travels with my grandfather after he retired - this is one of my favorites from that bunch. I'm sorry I'm not able to ask her about these trips anymore, but I love to sort through them and imagine what she saw in them. The sheer volume of postcards I just inherited is impressive. Collecting them seems to be hereditary.

It's worth noting that all of these postcards are probably from the '60s and maybe the '70s. Instagram just can't fully recreate the look and feel of photos from that era, no matter how many filters they give you.

Sent Feb 12:

News broke last week that the Art Institute of Chicago has created a room fashioned after Vincent Van Gogh's iconic "The Bedroom" painting, to be rented through Airbnb for a paltry $10 a night (good luck getting a booking). Do you have any idea how much I would love to stay there? Dang! As a reminder of life's cruelty and why I can't have nice things, I sent out this postcard instead, from a book of postcards I got at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2011.

Sent Feb 13:

This is as close to celebrating Valentine's Day as I get.

Bonus! Sent Feb 16:

ok, I'm not totally heartless! I included this gorgeous PaperMilk postcard in with an overdue present to one of my favorite couples. It wasn't my official postcard of the day, but I was grooving on that leftover romantic spirit.

For reals sent Feb 16:

Last August, I tried sending a postcard to SEV, an old friend I'd lost touch with. As I suspected, the address I had was outdated, and the postcard never received. But she signed up to get a postcard as part of this year's Lettermo! I selected this postcard for her, because it comes from a Frida Kahlo collection I've had since college, and there was a date inscribed on the other side, as if I had started writing but thought better of it. Based on the date (January 1994), it's quite possible that I had intended to send this to SEV all along. Circle of life, or something...

Sent Feb 17:

Claes Oldenberg, Pastry Case I, 1961-2

Oh, yesterday I was in such a hurry in the morning, and I didn't have the luxury of going in late - so I used the ace up my sleeve and grabbed this postcard, slapped a stamp on it, and wrote a postcard to my mom at lunch (because she's one of the few people whose address I know by heart anymore).

Sent Feb 18:

I was in even worse trouble today - Tilly just got back from a long trip last night after a long international sojourn, so I was out of sorts this morning and even more rushed than yesterday. I took a stamped postcard AND my address book and tried to write a postcard during the day, and I just wasn't feeling it. I realized too late that today's postcard needed to go to a different person, but I had already started writing on the one with someone else's name. This left me in a bind - should I break my self-imposed rule about using the postcards on hand, or risk missing a day altogether?

I ended up coming home and finding a fresh (but not new! I already had it, honest!) postcard for today's recipient, and dropped it in the postbox just now. The mail got picked up hours ago, but I can truthfully say I wrote and mailed this today, so I'm calling it good.

I wonder how many years will pass before I find that first postcard again and decide to finish it?

Weekend Roundup

I know it's not the weekend anymore, but let's pretend I posted this yesterday, shall we?

I got my first mail of the month - not a postcard, but a nifty letter featuring Domo-kun. A highlight of watching the NHK Trophy figure skating competition every fall is seeing all the little Domos in the "kiss and cry" area where skaters await their scores after competing.

As you can see, this is one of those envelopes-and-letters-in-one, and I had a hard time opening it without tearing the edges. It's been a while, what can I say?

Mailed Feb 5:

Édouard Boubat, We Prefer Life 1968

Here's a great image that was almost wasted - I started writing to someone using this postcard way back in 2012, but only got about a sentence in. I kept this great image, though, so I decided to continue the correspondence and send it anyway this year. No big.

This is a map of the world created in the 1540s, I think. I've been reading a lot of historical adventure/exploration books lately, and it just amazes me how people made maps of the globe before all the major land masses were known. I mean, there are definitely some errors here - the USA was not connected to Russia and China 500 years ago, and I don't see Australia on here at all - but it's pretty amazing how close this gets, all things considered.

Sent to my niece, who is about to spend a semester abroad.

It was weird to not mail anything yesterday. Of course, I was going to get started on the letters portion of my month and didn't. I'm such a procrastinator.

Stop Holding My Breath

So much for the end of year - again. You'd think that I'd have lots to post about, since I'm a fan of sending holiday cards, but this year was, in the words of my grandmother, a "clutter-f".

I sent far fewer cards this year, in part because I took a trip in the middle of the month. I spent 5 days in Barcelona, a city I'd visited before, to watch the Grand Prix Final of figure skating. Yes, I traveled to Europe for less than a week to sit in an ice rink. That's what I do. I did get some exploring done, however, and I was so proud of myself for writing and mailing postcards while I was there. I made sure that the stamps I got were for international mailing, and consulted my travel book (and the maintenance guy at my hostel) to find a proper post box. I was already envisioning the post I would write once they were received.

Well, it's been 6 weeks, and I'm ready to admit defeat. No one has received any postcards from me from Spain, despite my best efforts. I was holding on to the outside hope that mail from Europe is just sloooooow, but I'm pretty sure the postcards from Beijing only took about 2 weeks. Sigh.

Here are the postcards that people would have received, had any arrived in the US:

This is the pier at the end of La Rambla, a bustling tourist destination. In 2011, I stayed in this area (mistake!), and spent way too much time in the mall on water in the modern photo, because they had free wifi and very few other places did. I was relieved to find that wifi is now plentiful in Barcelona. The smaller tower in the back is the start of a cable car up to the Parc de Montjuïc.

Posing the postcard on my Barcelona travel guide is a nice touch, no?

Another sight that I visited in 2011 but not on this trip - Antoni Gaudí's beautiful Parc Güell. If only all urban public spaces were so gorgeously designed!

well that's embarrassing...

Geez, I knew I was a bit behind on things, and I was a little afraid to come and see just how long it'd been since I posted...but almost three months? Oy. I did manage to send out a few postcards here and there, but not as many as I'd like. But I need to get ready for holiday mailing (yes I should have started this already), and I just saw a post about the 2013 Month of Letters Challenge, so I'm back, and ready to write.

Because I'm already in the proverbial doghouse, here's a postcard that was given to me in 1992 by a customer to hand deliver to someone she knew who worked at my college. Obviously, that didn't happen.

"Dancer with Flat Hat" by Phillip Levine

"3-25-92

Hi Theresa ~

The person who's delivering this card to you for me makes the best espresso and I think "they" should get the espresso flowing in [my college town]!! <3 Bonnie

'THEY' = PEOPLE WITH $ TO INVEST"

Sigh...oh the guilt! When I found this card I vaguely remembered chatting with a customer about going to school, and her handing me a card to deliver. I can't imagine why I didn't, unless I lost it and it only resurfaced later. Also - in 1992, espresso was all the rage in Seattle, but it hadn't quite become the indispensable commodity across the country yet.

Ugh, I'm going to get a lump of coal in my stocking this year, I just know it.

Dead Letter Office #1

Since I so narrowly avoided adding another half-written/never sent postcard to my pile, I thought I should do penance by posting one I wrote to my sister a lifetime ago that she never received.

Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Braid, 1941

"23 February 1992
Dear A -
Hola! After our talk last weekend, I've been very curious how your talk with your advisor went and if you solved the mystery of the missing cat vomit. I sent in my financial aid form but I am dreadfully afraid that it is too late, which means I can't go to school until Fall. How typically irresponsible of me, right? I am quite angry at myself over this, but oh well. What else is new? We will have a niece or nephew very soon! xo J

Hi MEEP + CINE!"

Oh dear.....I'd love to muse about the missing cat vomit (we've all been there, right?), but I am already imagining the reply my mom is going to leave about this. You see, in February 1992 I was preparing to return to college after an extended sabbatical, and as I feared, I had sent my financial aid form in too late to qualify for spring quarter aid. But I didn't wait until Fall quarter to return. I honestly don't remember if I knew when I flew back to Ohio in April that I had missed out on financial aid or maybe I was hoping they'd just give it to me if they saw I was serious about my education (this seems more likely), but let's just say there was an unpleasant conversation halfway through the quarter when a bill arrived at my mother's house. And that I never missed a financial aid deadline again.

Love you, mom!!! Sorry I was so flaky 20 years ago! xoxoxo