The Lost Art of Letter Writing...

I ended up in a conversation on my son's page on Facebook yesterday--this is how it started, with my son's initial post:

"Why do people get all mad when people don't reply to a text? When people don't hear back from others when writing letters, they don't act the same way because they understand that it's a piece of paper traveling a distance and people are busy with life and whatnot. If i don't text you back it's because it's text. It's at my control to reply as I please. No alterior motives, no ignoring.. Cell phones have telephone functionality for a reason."

This prompted my reply:

"The art of letter writing is lost...I'm thinking of starting it up again."

I figured I'd catch some flack from my son about posting in one of his conversations and his friends would just virtually roll their eyes at me and move on. But there were some intriguing comments that were posted afterwards amongst other observations and commentary...

Collin: Mom, it never should have gotten lost.

Nancy (my sister): Jane, in our local school system, they have dropped cursive writing altogether. I understand that the world uses keyboards, etc. now, but this just seems unbelievable to me.

MacyShay: I can't remember how to write in cursive but I did take a coligraphy class (I think that's how its spelled) and it was so much fun but killed my hand! But I wish I knew cursive=(

Hearing these comments actually made me kind of sad. My son actually admitted to me that he didn't really remember cursive either. I had no idea! I guess I hadn't even thought of this consequence of an almost all computer generation. I thought back to when my son was in high school a couple of years ago and realized that most of the essays, reports and whatnot that he turned in to his teachers were always typed up on the computer and printed out.

So I have now made it my mission to start writing more letters. Not emailing...not typing on my computer & printing out...but actually putting pen to paper & thoughtfully writing out what I want to say. No "lol", "omg" or "wtf". It's time take back this lost art. 

So friends & family, watch out! You may have a hand-written correspondence coming to a mailbox near you.

Sincerely yours,
Jane 

Comfortable...

So remember last week when I still hadn't gotten my Christmas tree taken down yet? Well today, after feeling icky all week, I finally started getting it all put away. I got the house decorations boxed up, took the ornaments and lights off the tree, then got so far as taking the very top of the Christmas tree off.

Then I got hungry.

I grabbed a bowl of my favorite Greek yogurt (remind me to tell you about it sometime), tossed a little granola on top, and settled onto the couch to eat. When I was finished I happened to glance over to the tree bag and this is what I saw:

That dog can be comfortable ANYWHERE...

So Much For Plans...

It's 2012...Christmas has been over for a week now. Because I didn't get my Christmas tree up until a week before Christmas, I told myself I would allow keeping it up until New Year's Day. It was a great plan.

Yet here it stands.

My friend Donna & I had plans early New Year's morning to go check out the once a year sale at Dillards. We got up early and arrived right at 7 am. (Although when we arrived we found out it actually opened at 6 am--whoopsie!) It's the one time of the year that you can get 50% off everything that is already on sale and clearance. I just wanted to use this once a year chance to get some items I really needed at prices I could afford. 

(FIVE bras and three pairs of undies for less than $40--enough said.)

 

Unfortunately, when I woke up yesterday morning, I wasn't feeling in top form. My throat was scratchy and my sinuses felt a little stuffy. By the time we had finished at Dillards I was definitely ready to head home. Donna, being the great friend she is, offered me some Benadryl to help me feel better and get some rest. So when I got home I took a Benadryl and settled in on the couch to kill some time. Four hours later I woke up. It was almost 6:00 pm and I was feeling groggy and still pretty crappy. That tree was not coming down.

So here I am on Monday morning, January 2nd, off from work and camped out on the couch again. My head is stuffed up, my throat is sore, and the tree is still there--as evidenced in the photo just taken with my phone above. An unlit, dark tree, looking kind of forlorn with a few ornaments lying on the ground underneath, knocked off from one of our dogs who insists on sleeping under it. If I feel better later today, I'll make a go at it. If not, I suppose it will wait until I feel more like myself.

Let's just hope it's not still up on Valentine's Day.... 

2012...

I could wait until New Years Eve to say this...but it's on my mind so you get it now:

This was a very tough year. It's horrible to know that I'll always remember 2011 as the year we lost my nephew. Life will never be the same. Because of this... 

I will not take life for granted. I will speak fiercely. I will get back in shape. I will remember that I deserve to be happy. 

It was also a tough year financially. This year I want to learn to cut back and live more simply so when things go wrong like they do, I can "pull myself up by my bootstraps" and go on.

OH! Also I swear this is the year that I am finally not going to worry so much about what other people think of me.

...maybe....

Six Feet Under...

I recently did a basic marathon through an HBO series on Netflix. It unfortunately wasn't on instant view, so I had to watch it disk by disk, waiting each time for the next to arrive in the mail.

Talk about impatience....

But the reason I bring this up is because I thought this was an excellent series. I'll be the first to admit--it's not for everybody. But if you can get past some of the stuff that may make you squeamish (whether it's watching a scene where a funeral worker shows an apprentice how to sew a dead woman's mouth shut, an opening scene in every episode where someone dies, or a slightly incestuous dream sequence), this is a great one to watch.

Here are some of the caveats:

• There are a LOT of death scenes (at least one per episode)
• The language is heavy on the salty side (plenty of "F-bombs" dropped each episode)
• There are some pretty explicit sex scenes--both heterosexual and non-heterosexual
• The humor in it is mostly on the dark side, so if you're not into that you probably won't like it

BUT...

If none of that bothers you, or you plan to just fast forward through some of it, then do yourself a favor and watch this series. As most people who read my blog know, my 23 year old nephew was killed in a work accident this past May. Believe it or not, my sister is the one who recommended this series to me. We both enjoy the same types of movies and tv shows and we share the same warped sense of humor. Both of us found this series oddly comforting, in light of the tragedy that our family went through. I won't say that there weren't some scenes where my eyes were watering, or I was even bawling outright. But this show enforces the fact that everyone grieves differently. Some people keep it inside, while others wail at the top of their lungs. This show lets us know that we're all human and as messed up as we think our lives may be, remember there are others who have gone through something equally (if not more) messed up. I think this has honestly opened my eyes more to the normalcy of death and the process of grieving. 

Check out this trailer for season one:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3045261593/ 

If you've watched this series already, let me know what your thoughts are. If you haven't but are interested, watch it and then let me know what you think.

"Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends."