073. Sporty

I would be such an athlete if gluttony was a sport.

Sadly, or thankfully, it isn't. We finally went grocery shopping earlier and as we were loading the car: "I only have a fork in my bag! If it was only a spoon I'd be annihilating those pudding-yogurt textured cups in the car right now...*sigh*" Well... within an hour of getting home, I tore through three cups of chocolate pudding and a Nutrigrain bar in 20-30 minutes. For dinner I'm having a free personal pan pepperoni pizza. (Man, I love alliterations, lol.) I can't finish it, I'm so full T_T.

The SO is trying to cheer me up/ spend time with me by helping me research to build my own computer. It's actually a blast and a half while being completely heartbreaking and painfully brain-melting. One of these days I'll be able to do that. I have a penchant for destroying mainstream technology with my nonsense. We are by no means hard core users/ builders or over-clocking like mad. I just really like to run many nice-looking things really well all at once. Always. I feel I know squat about computer parts, but I know what I want it to do and what I would like to eventually try to do with my technology, lol.

I wanted to write something a little bit more substantial today but I have no idea if I'm up for it. I did realize that I forgot to buy my stamps so I could send the rest of my handmade cards out. :( I feel that there is a lot to be said about the power of a letter. Even though one that is personally typed and mailed out can say a lot, writing a note by hand and sending it out says much more. I am a big fan of handwriting cards and letters and I don't do it nearly as often as I should. I hope to start good habits now with keeping up with sending out cards and letters- whatever the lengths- to loved ones to show how much I really care about having them in my life. Even if I don't get to spend a lot of time with you physically or we're able to talk enough on the phone and texting a million messages doesn't quite cut it, I want you to know that I do think of you all often and want to still put forth effort into our friendships. I love getting mail, well not tons of coupons, but sometimes I sign up for newsletters and free magazines just to have that mini- Christmas morning every now and then when I check the mail box.

Any relationship takes effort and with out mind-numbing technology can make us (as well as giving us the potential to be more "efficient") I want to not lose that sense of personal and human communication. Yes, you may have to wait three days for your letter to arrive, a day or so for it to be read and responded to, and another three days to receive our surprise in the mail- but the power of even the simplest of messages is astounding.

This is one of the constant truths (aka life lessons) that I have learned in my life because of what I went through a few years back. I was with someone who was boot camp for three months. In three months I only heard his voice for about 2 minutes and 35 seconds. A lot of that time, I wasn't even allowed to respond back to before he was ordered to hang up. I wrote like mad. My first letter was 15 pages of front and back. Two lines of writing squeezed into each line on the notebook paper. I chronicled some of the simplest things just so he could imagine being there with me. In the end, I tried to mail a letter out almost every day and had written over two hundred pages (they were numbered). We are no longer together, but to this day, I have his thirty-something letters tucked away in a small box from that time in our lives.

I think a life-line is an understatement for what those letters meant. So, I cannot even imagine what it has meant through the years before all this "communication" through our fingertips or during much harder times of war. And I don't want to, nor do I want to wish it upon anyone I remotely cared about. There is a lot to be said about the written word and about the one written by your hand. I'm old-fashioned, I suppose, in a few ways. If I was more awake, I'd probably be able to describe it all a little more. I strongly advise you to try it. Start with something simple like a quick 'Hello' or 'I miss you' on a post it note or napkin. Then, use stationery that is fairly small so that you don't feel obligated to fill in the empty space. It doesn't matter whether or not you feel like you're the next Shakespeare, just write. It will be appreciated.

It may take time to sit down and think of what to write, but the people you write to are worth making time for, are they not? I do my best to keep all the birthday and holiday cards I receive from friends and look back on them from time to time. Even if the messages seem generic or impersonal, you can hear their voice in your head and it can bring you back to that time and dust off other memories you may not have a video or picture of. Those ordinary moments you may have taken for granted. The wonderful experiences you never want to forget. I'm constantly surprising myself with what I find myself writing just when I think I have nothing to say. It helps bleed over into in-person conversation too. I can finally find myself having heartfelt chats out of the blue that are some of the most amazing memories of all. It brings out one's humanity and lavishes it with compassion and attention. It's really quite hard to describe unless you've felt it and realized what you were experiencing. So, try it.

I wish you all the best in your endeavors. Until tomorrow <3