It's hot. And I got a postcard.

This week has been kind of brutal, in more ways than one. Adding insult to life's little injuries, it's been quite warm here in the Pacific Northwest. Oh, nothing compared to the outrageous heat waves suffered by the rest of the country this summer, but keep in mind that air conditioning is a rarity here, and buildings aren't generally built taking air flow into consideration, so when it gets hot (and I'd say mid-90s qualifies as hot), there's not a lot of relief.

The week was so busy (and HOT!), I don't even remember when it arrived, but I received this lovely postcard...

Earlier in the summer, a friend was running an online campaign to send her dance company to the Minneapolis Fringe Festival. Normally I opt out of thank you gifts, but I saw that one option was to receive a postcard from the company after the show, so of course I couldn't resist. And what a cool card! It makes me want to book a flight right now.

...especially looking at the 5-day forecast in Minneapolis, which is predicting breezy, mid-70s weather in the coming week.

Monday Motivation?

My wagon is draggin' this morning, I can't get going somehow. To abet my procrastination, here's one postcard sent and one from the vaults...

Mailed 8/12:

I forgot to write it down, but this is either an Henri Cartier-Bresson or an Édouard Boubat image...what can I say, their work makes for great postcards.

And now for an oldie, postmark Sept 2, 1986:

that white star is a cutout in the card

"8/29/86

YO!

How are ya? Hope that you are having a marvellous time.......how about an okay time. I'm fine. I moved. Now I'm exhausted but at least it's over, finally. I never want to move again (although I say that every year). Life with three fat cats isn't all it's cracked up to be. Hope I don't have a nervous breakdown - or get fleas. Hey, I miss you. Come home soon. I want to come see you on the 4th - O.K.?????

Love,

me :)"

Sent by a family friend while I was on my brief adventure as a chambermaid at a hotel in Cape May, NJ for a couple of weeks before my senior year in high school. I'm kind of surprised my mom let me go, I was one of the youngest people working there, and there wasn't exactly much in the way of supervision. My "room" was at the top of these stairs far away from the other staff (possibly because most of them were 20-something and there was a lot of partying in the staff housing), and it was a throughway to other parts of the hotel. I think it was usually used as a shortcut by staff, not as housing - a couple of times when I first arrived, someone would walk through in the morning and yelp when they saw someone sleeping there. I was reading Crime and Punishment during my stay - probably on the summer reading list for school - and the only other girl my age seemed soooooo cool because she had followed INXS on tour and claimed that Michael Hutchence was in love with her, which I both thought was complete BS and really wanted to believe, because what teenage girl doesn't want to believe their star crush will fall for them if only we could meet them??


The postcard is also notable in that it was typed.

Early morning musings

There are some days that I feel like I will never get a normal night's sleep again. This is one of those days. It should be against the law to naturally wake up at 6:45am on a Saturday. It's bad enough that I've started waking up that early during the week without an alarm. At least this gives me a chance to get somewhat caught up on things.

Here's some belated posting of thank you postcards I sent to a few folks who helped me get a new job (BTW - whee! New! Job! Starting soon!). Which makes me realize I've still got a couple more to write....er....

Mailed July 31:

Saul Steinberg, "Indians, Cyclists, Artists" 1968

I love, love, love this image - it probably doesn't read as well scanned, but it's a simple repeating-motif drawing that makes me smile every time I look at it. Probably one of my favorite postcards I've found this year. I might just have to go back and get another to keep.

Don Eddy, "Private Parking X", 1971

Not sure where I got this, but it's been kicking around for a few years. You can tell it's from the late '60s/early '70s - not only because of the subject, but the photo-realistic style of the painting and the way the colors pop, almost like the early days of Technicolor.

Going in the mail today:

because what better way to get around to lingering tasks than to post what's left to be done on the internet?

Dan May, "Dogs and Bones" 1985

I've had this postcard for decades. You can see it on my wall in many photos from college and when I first moved to Seattle. Hmm, I wonder if it's kind of déclassé to send someone a postcard with obvious tape marks on the back?

Rounding out the day's post, another great panel from Mutts. One of my favorites!

In the mail!

Hey! Check out this fab postcard that arrived this weekend from my favorite flamenco dancer, Melinda.

She's an artist living in Sevilla (of course), but she comes to teach and perform in the States and particularly the Pacific Northwest frequently. I'm looking forward to her upcoming show in September at the Rendezvous Jewelbox Theatre. If you're in the area, please come! In the meantime, here's a shameless plug for her awesome work;

Baile!

random Wednesday morning

Up at 5:45am for no reason. Why not send a postcard?

"Smoking Kills"

It really does!

*yawn* now excuse me, I gotta get ready for work...

From the Vaults #7 - Collaborative Correspondence

Since I posted the group postcards from my trip last night, it only seems fair to post the inspiration...

(postmark April 23, 1991)

"Hello Miss J! Congratulations on a successful escape from the midwest! Do you realize how fat [My Awesome Sister aka MAS] is making your cat? If you don't send for her soon you'll have to pay extra for the shipping because of all that extra weight. We miss you! Love, AC

Your evil cat just attacked AC & AC attacked your cat. Whose blood is it? MAS is in the process of feeding us. I am happy. xxoo John.

I'm twenty nine, two days ago and still I don't understand the humor of this company or I still don't understand English. Anyway they look funny and I enjoy them. The strange and funny company and I miss you and your funny hair - Gio

Hey J!! We're having a quiche and chocolate cake dinner with some bizarre CDs brought by Gio + John. We are only missing you for a perfect meal! Write soon and tell us how you are... xo, A"

If only I had more font options to truly capture the wonder of this postcard.

In the fall of 1990, I house-sat (aka slacked) for my sister for 2 months while she was working on her graduate studies elsewhere. Her friends kindly adopted me (possibly because she made them), which was good because otherwise I may never have left the apartment. We went on a scavenger hunt, saw Social Distortion and Sonic Youth, frequented a great Irish pub, watched an opera on tv (don't remember which one, but I'm pretty sure it was Mozart), and had many dinners. Soon afterward, I made my big move to Seattle, and this card was a welcome reminder of friends before I'd had any time to make my own in a new city (besides Dang Ramona, who was already here).

I never did get my cat back. I decided to go back to college, and begged my sister to hang on to her for a little while longer, which ended up being until 2008, when the Meepster finally trilled her last song. This is one of the many reasons that My Awesome Sister has a fancy title.

Derailed by Derecho in DC

I was visiting our nation's capitol last week, aka The Swamp of It All, and in delightful anticipation, I sent a friendly little windstorm in an effort to expand the vocabularies of the people and spice things up a bit. Unfortunately, this was my first time working with one of these things, and I overdid it a leetle bit. Sorry, people of DC!

I did manage to ensure that our house was the only one in the neighborhood that didn't lose power (and thank goodness - it was 98F with a heat index of 110, y'all!!), but our small sacrifice was living without internet. On the positive side, it made for more conversation, reading, and most importantly: writing.

Sent July 1:

from the series "I grew up" - Keisha Scarville, 1997

I arrived in DC with an agenda: group postcards. Since I was visiting friends I've known since college, I figured we should write to a few of our other friends who could not join us (even though I offered to bring one of them along in my carry on bag). First up! A postcard to Dang Ramona, who kindly gave me a ride to the airport at an ungodly hour of the morning and hopefully had enough gas left to get to a station and make it back home. It should be noted that one of our party was a little unclear on the concept of postcards and wanted to write where the address goes. Or under the stamp.

I know I wrote down the text from this postcard before I sent it, because it was pretty cool and I knew it would be illegible on my crappy cell phone camera. Can I find this anywhere now? Non.

ETA: Found it!

"When I got my first set of keys I felt free. I thought I could leave the house whenever I wanted (which wasn't true). The first time I used them I couldn't figure out which keys went to which door. even though I had keys, I couldn't get in. Later my dad taped numbers to my keys. Each number represented a door."

Sent July 2:

Solo scribbling to My Awesome Sister (tm). It was cool enough in the morning (a mere 85 degrees) for me to sit out on the porch with my coffee and a borrowed cat, a perfect set up for sisterly correspondence. I could actually feel when it went over 90, which made me scurry back into the AC cave.

Sent July 5:

Another group effort, this one headed to the Motor City. There were more of us to write this time, and I was mean and wouldn't let anyone eat the mountains of Delicious Pork (and corn, and mashed potatoes, and grilled zucchini, and homemade guacamole, and...you get the picture) for our July 4th celebrations until we'd written this card. Because nothing says "independence!" like coercion, amiright?

All of these are just some postcards I bought about a month ago and stuffed in my bag at the last minute. I had hoped to find some cool DC ones, but it was so freakin hot we didn't leave the house much. The one afternoon we went exploring we tried to find a bookstore, but there was none. I half-heartedly looked for some DC cards in the airport on my way out, but the selection was lame.