As I finished typing the last sentences of my last (for now) blog post somehow a little piece of my subconscious knew that I would receive my first SASE from my good friend Jonny, and that it would be very prompt. As if on cue, a letter did arrive from Jonny (and his wife Hannah) as quickly as the USPS made possible. After a long (and busy!) day at the shop, followed by a delicious Indian feast at a nearby restaurant I found the letter lying on the table just inside the door.
I wasn't really sure of what I was doing/planning when I unofficially announced that I planned to continue blogging... and then offered continued receipt of said [b]logs via SASE. First of all, I had no idea if anyone would even bother with the time and money (88¢ + 2 envelopes) involved. Also, I didn't have a ny particular writing plans... although these daily exercises have been nice and might as well be continued. And now that I have at least one paper log "subscriber" I have a greater purpose behind these thoughts... I am... a Logger!
Another more immediate effect of the letter (for a letter it was, as well as a SASE!) was to make me excited. I still have a few pen and paper correspondences, and I think half the reason for this is my innate love of tangible memorabilia and all things antiquated. I get this from both parents. I have a pocket watch (waiting on a fob), a physical ledger book, and an old cigar box with recipes on index cards. In high school I would collect paperback classic novels, half as much for the weathered artwork on the covers as for the literary value. And I love letters. So maybe, if I'm being honest with myself, a request for SASEs was partly a clever, subconscious trick to get mail! Score!
But also, as I read over Jonny's friendly words, this letter did well to remind me of the joy of paper correspondence. When I was composing the auto-reply "vacation responder" for my email account I was envisioning most of my communication during this time period as phone-centered. But hey, why not mail some letters too? Catch up on some correspondences? Yeah it costs money, but what's 44¢ these days? Sure it takes time (i.e. - is not instantaneous), but 2 days plus a few hours isn't really that long... So hooray for snail mail
Finally, I've just remembered that I wanted to make some predictions (not the right word) about this month. What do I fear? What do I think will be challenging? etc... One guess I had was that trivial searches would lose their appeal; so far that's been true. If googling an obscure law/fact/thing is no longer an option then the back of my mind will stop urging me to a computer throughout the day. I do think it will be difficult to get by without conveniences such as: apartment-searching, job-searching, obscure item purchasing (with home delivery!)... and checking the weather. Today I woke to pouring rain, psyched myself up, bundled up in rain gear, bike to work... and then couldn't fit all my rain gear into my small backpack when the ride home happened to be sunny and gorgeous. Who could have guessed?
I'll ponder more later. Now to bed! I've got some serious relaxing to do tomorrow!
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