Thursday, May 13, 2010

the results are in:

apparently people like to read pretend letters i write to myself? it's not the first time, so i guess i shouldn't be surprised.

my mind often thinks in letters {as in, 'dear so-and-so' not 'a b c'.} and writing them has always been a favorite of mine.

my grandma was one of my earliest pen pals. i have probably close to 100 letters from her from years and years ago. i would send her a handwritten one {of course, the handwriting would change with each letter. sometimes the dots on the i's would be dots, sometimes circles and sometimes hearts} and she, in return, would send me a reply from her trusty typewriter and inked singature at the bottom.

i had a pen pal in mrs. green's third grade class at heartland elementary. she lived in houston. i think she didn't like writing letters as much as i did. i didn't mind.

i have a box full of cards and letters that have been sent to me over the years. i open it up every once in awhile and let the memories flow. oftentimes just looking a person's handwriting can bring back wonderful thoughts. i'm actually working on creating my handwriting as a font to add a little bit of that human touch to letters that have to be written on the computer.

i prefer the pen and paper kind of letter with a stamp and a return address. but writing letters online has been a great way for me to make sense of some of my jumbled thoughts. i found when leah was first diagnosed, and even before, i spoke to her in my mind in letter form. my thoughts always started, 'dear little leah.' and so, because i didn't want those thoughts to be lost forever, my blog for her was born.

i'm not sure how often i'll continue to write letters to myself, but thanks to my 52 friends for your input {okay, 51...i voted too}.

p.s. YES, i know i spelled alagonchy {al-uh-gone-chee} wrong on the poll. how lame am i to spell my own word wrong!? i noticed the second i saw it on my sidebar and went back to change it, but some speedy speederton had voted already, so blogger wouldn't let me.

2 comments:

Jenny said...

I'm a letter girl too. My grandma and I used to write letters to each other. I still have some of those letters from when I was 8 years old. I'm pretty sure that if she were still alive, we would still be writing letters, and using stamps to get them to each other. There is something special about a letter. Perhaps that's why I like the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. That was a great book. Anyway. I've also been writing letters to Sammy and Callie every Sunday. I've been contemplating starting a blog for Sammy so I can maybe get connected with other families with microcephaly...and you've pushed me over the edge there. For whatever reason, I've been holding back. Thanks for encouraging me to do it without even knowing it.

Jessica M said...

Hey I read the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society recently too! (from the last comment)

I enjoyed your Mothers Day post. It was beautifully expressed.