Never too late for resolutions...right?

Happy New Year!

yeah, yeah, yeah, 2013 is old news by now, but I have reasons for belatedness. Good ones! Or at least one good one...I was traveling for two weeks in January, resulting in actual "Wish you were here" postcards, some of which were mailed while I was traveling. And then I was...jet-lagged for another two weeks! Sure!

It really helps to set one's expectations low, I'm afraid.

Nevertheless, the year is still young, and I am looking forward to many adventures told through brief scraps of cardstock.

Yes! I went to Amsterdam - and also Ghent, Belgium. I picked up many more postcards while I was there, but these were the only two I managed to mail from Europe. It was surprisingly difficult to find post offices and mailboxes in either city - the only reason these got mailed is that I stayed in a super fancy hotel in Ghent and they just send out your mail for you, at no additional charge. If I'd realized that ahead of time I would have made sure to have more written when I checked out.

And then this arrived, right before my birthday:

Aaaaah, it's a Griffin and Sabine postcard!

Even better, it's written in metallic marker!!!

"B#2!
H-BD to U!
What's up? How much are you dancing?
Do you ever go to the "LoFi"? Let's make a date!
luv, B#1"

Getting mail is nice :)

Missives from Mom

I always love highlighting postcards from My Awesome Sister, but I have to give credit to my mother - she's really stepped up her game this year. I think she enjoys sending postcards more than I do. Here are a couple that I've gotten recently (am I buying time to get back in the swing of things? why yes, thanks for noticing!)...

Received back in October:

Peace Sign, Missoula, Montana - Dismantled 2001

"Don't know why they took this down. 
Mission accomplished?

NOT

love you,
Mom"

And received last week:

"Blue Snow, The Battery" George Bellows (1910)

"This is Battery Park - way before the landfill. looks like a park, eh? Bellows exhibit blew me away. Amazing stuff - This is only one of favorites - M"

Short and sweet!

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.

Belated

I bought cards last week for two birthdays this weekend, and somehow managed to send both of them off late. This is, to my shame, not uncommon. I think I wouldn't feel so bad about sending things (cards, presents, financial aid forms) off late if I did not usually have them ready to go well in advance. Hopefully people have chalked this up to a delightful quirk and can enjoy the element of surprise, since you just never know when something will arrive from me, no matter what the occasion.

I didn't scan the birthday cards, but I realized that I have a couple of sent postcards that I never posted:

Mailed August (egads) 25:

I didn't mean to send so many of those cat postcards at once but 1) they're rad and 2) this one went to friends who had just completed an interstate cat adoption, thanks to My Awesome Sister. To celebrate the successful handoff of the Wee Nugget, one of the color cards.

Mailed September 7:

This is from another postcard book I bought - all covers of real romance comix from the '50s. Most of them involve our heroine shedding symbolic tears and making exclamations about choosing between two men, or making a man choose between her and another woman. I like this one because the lady in question seems more angry that her date has been thwarted than guilty about her evening hobby.

Besides, who can resist sending something that says "I Was An Army Camp Pick-Up" to their mother?

and finally, mailed today:

Kiki Smith, Flock, 1998

This one just sums up how I've been feeling the last while - shadowy, out of focus, and possibly not what you think I am at all.

Come see this show!

No postcard today, but an update about the flamenco show I talked about back in July - it's happening this Friday! At the Rendezvous Jewelbox Theater. Come see amazing dance and music! Yes!

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/261376

Added bonus - there is a show on Thursday in Bellingham, and TWO shows in Portland, Saturday and Sunday nights.

And thank you Melinda for introducing me to an ongoing Tuesday night flamenco show that is happening in my very own neighborhood.

MOMA moment from Mom

I am procrastinating. I have a new refrigerator that will be delivered tomorrow (my life is SO exciting!), and I should be defrosting the old one, throwing out items that have been lurking in there for far too long, cleaning the kitchen, moving the furniture to make it easier for the delivery, etc etc etc....sounds exhausting, non? Fortunately, my mailbox had a couple of interesting items today to distract me from such boring endeavors.

First up:

The Vegetabull, Jan Lewitt, 1943

"Read the fine print! xxx Mom"
                                                    is all she wrote.

I'm not really sure if that's a literal instruction or a figure of speech. There is one line of type so tiny it couldn't possibly say anything relevant - but I do know this image was part of a very groovy exhibit on kitchens that my mom and I went to in September 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art. It might be a surprise to see vegetarian propaganda from the mid-20th century, but the message - "a vegetable dish made with dried eggs or household milk is as good as a joint" - is not espousing an ethical, non-meat diet; it's a positive spin on wartime rationing.

I also got a card (not a postcard) from my friend who was in town last month, and in light of my last post I had to share one line:

"So many times I've wanted to return your fabulous postcards that you've sent with an extra cool one from me, but, no dice. Sorry!"

See? For some reason, correspondence creates pressure, even though it should just be fun. And no, I didn't pay her to say my postcards are fabulous. All I can say to any potential correspondent is: in this day and age of mostly electronic communication, anything other than bills or junk mail in the post box is a huge thrill! it's not so much what you write - it's that you write at all!

Back to School

It doesn't matter how long it's been since I was in the education cycle - the beginning of September always means both new beginnings - and time to get down to business. Before things get too serious, here are a couple of fall postcards from summer friends, both received in 1986.

Postmark 10/20/1986:

"Dear J, saw this card and thought of you. Sorry I have not written for so long. I got into a college in Iowa? Amanda is the girl who knows Jay B. You a senior? I don't know if I'm going back to the Chalfonte. Justin (of course) has not written did you write his sister? Hope to see you if I have a game at [my high school]"

This is a postcard from my INXS-groupie friend from this post. I'd love to tell you her name, but she didn't sign it. I don't remember why Goodnoe's reminded her of me, or who Amanda or Jay are, and while I also don't remember Justin or his sister, I'm guessing they worked at the hotel with us. Her handwriting is really spidery and almost runs off the card in places. I wonder if I even wrote her back.

Postmark 11/25/1986:

 "J-
I know - it's not my turn but I just thought I'd send this anyway to say hi + see how you are doing - though I suppose I can't see anything through this postcard anyway. I'm making up for it not being my turn by writing a postcard not a letter. Hope you're doing okay. Lynn"

Ah, the old 'whose turn to write' conundrum! Very sneaky to get extra credit by writing out of turn - especially sending a postcard that essentially says nothing. It didn't matter if what you received was meaningless - if you were caught having gotten extra (unearned!) correspondence, it meant your next letter had better be super awesome.

This was a girl I met at summer camp in either 1984 or 1985. She went to a rival school, so I got to see her a couple of times. I remember when she said she'd be coming to a basketball game at my school, because 1) it meant I had to attend the game and 2) her school had a varsity AND a JV team of cheerleaders with 12 students each, official uniforms, and complex cheers. My school had the only 5 or 6 students who were interested in cheerleading, wearing their own white sweaters with school letters tacked on the front, and they mostly just jumped around and yelled a lot. I secretly wanted to be a cheerleader (yelling is fun!), but it was considered so uncool in my school that I didn't do it.