Mystery Mail

The letter is from Nepal and the postcard is from Finland but I do not know who they are from. I kind of think that the postcard might be from my penpal Niina so I need to retrace to see if she signed her letters as she has on the postcard. I have not opened the letter yet to read it - that is something to be savored.

It is my son's (my eldest child) 22nd birthday, today. I made quiche tarts for brunch for Cerridwen, Daddy, and I. We had each gone back to our own pursuits when Joseph and Alicia came by en-route to an afternoon/evening of birthday fun, followed a minute later by my godson Michael. So it has been a bit busy, and there are other things... Later tonight when everything is quiet, I will open my letter from Nepal. The writer will fare better than some other penpals who have waited quite a while to hear from me but the latest ebbs have finally transitioned back into a flow where I can catch up with my letter writing and such. Finally. I miss the busy fun of it all but yesterday I finally got all of my postcrossing postcards up-to-date on my postcards page.

Plum Brandy

I just realized that I forgot to photograph the two letters I sent out today ... Bummer because they were really cute! But I was afraid that I'd miss the mail carrier who usually has come and gone by the time I finished up that second letter this afternoon. Besides, I was distracted. My godson brought by an early birthday present last night - a large bottle of a Serbian plum brandy...

I poured some earlier for a friend of mine who was over visiting. Excited to show me (via her cellphone) a photo of this hottie she spotted on facebook, she excitedly reached over and spilled her brandy on some absolutely lovely envelopes I made from pages of Yoga Journal (eek!), my personal journal, my nook, a penpal letter from an Australian friend that was next in the queue to be answered, the envelope of the letter I was working on at the time - and a couple of drops on the letter I was writing! Thankfully, my letter-in-progress to Tony-in-Liverpool was not harmed, the next-in-queue envelope was soaked, but surprisingly, it did not leak through at all so the letter itself was unharmed (quality paper, that stationery she used!), my nook and journal got dried quickly as my daughter was moving fast as were my friend and I in the whole damage control process - but alas, my beautiful Yoga Journal envelopes! (Sigh) It could have been a lot worse. However - I have gone over to her facebook page to retrieve a photo of the guy who caused all of this trouble in the first place...

...And so it is clearly understandable how my girl - any girl - could lose her cool!

wOw!

Happy Birthday Mail!

I was answering a letter to my penfriend Cylvia when the doorbell rang. The mail carrier had a package that needed to be signed for and she also had my mail, of course -  and what a surprise that among it was a pretty orange envelope with a birthday sticker on the front, from the very friend I was in the midst of writing a letter to! I thought that was cool!

What wasn't cool, however, was the condition in which the card arrived ... I haven't opened it yet, but one can tell it is likely a card by feeling it, and I can see that it is a card because someone between Cylvia's home and mine, has pried into it! I am assuming it is on this side because unfortunately, this kind of thing does occur - our postal system does not have the kind of people of integrity that it once had long ago. People sometimes put money or gift cards in cards so there are people in the trusted positions of postal service who will try to get it out of the envelopes. Disgraceful. Of course, I could be assuming that was what happened, but here are the photos. . .

. . .So it is clear that I am not being completely paranoid, even if I am jumping to the wrong conclusions!

Even so-

It is a very exciting,

and happy surprise

to receive a birthday greeting

from my friend Cylvia!

And

I

will save it 'til

Sunday

so I can open it up

on my actual

birthday.

:D