oops! i can’t find the photo credit!
“Now that you are here with me, what we have is a great strength of feet.” –Ah-Sneeze (Isaac Hayes), Robin Hood, Men in Tights
While unpacking and organizing my old journals and notebooks, I realized I had a lot of things written in them about, and from, friends. Not anything salacious or blackmail-esque, just random things they did for me, funny quotes that made me laugh so hard I cried, and pictures, pictures, pictures! When I think about my grandmother and all her friends, I feel very happy that I took so many pictures of when I was young so my grandkids will know all the crazy fashions and stages I went through with my friends by my side. For a girl who started out the adventure of life with very few friends, and an elementary school of bad memories and teasing, I am very grateful for the close friends I carry with me today. I love meeting new people who stimulate the air around me.
Friends across the US.
I feel very lucky to have so many friends spread around this fantastic country. I just have to work on the funds to support visiting them all!! Best part? Free places to stay and insiders tips on the best places to eat, shop and visit. And my friends have fantastic taste and all live in kick-ass places (names are nicknames, for privacy):
Brent Summers: Seattle, WA
HellaTuff: Woodbridge (Washington DC area)
KungFu Sinizine: Nashville, TN
O’Malley: Ventura, CA
The Duckster: Honululu, HI
Gills: Pullman, WA (WAZZOU all the way!)
and my brother Willie, who lives it up in Chi-town, IL!!
It’s so hard to think that at one time, all these little whippersnappers were in one state. What crazy fantastic magical bond will keep them together? ME! (just kidding) It’s living in Arizona. 🙂
Keeping tabs on all of them (not to mention the friends I have still in-state) can be an extremely daunting task ( I use stamps and send packages so much you’d think the mailman would just give me stamps as a thank-you for keeping his USPS branch alive!) There are several easy ways I use to keep up with them and send news, besides text and emails.
1. Postcards – the stamps are a tiny bit cheaper than regular ones, you can give some general news (“Tortilla is great, It’s 80 degrees in Feb, Love you”) and send them a pic to make them miss your home state and you. I like to find sunset pics especially, because a lot of places they live now, they don’t see the amazing sunsets we do here in the desert.
2. Holiday gift packs – I like to try and send at least two or three gifts around the commercial holidays (and some uncommon ones!) to remind them that someone cares. While cleaning out my old room in my parents’ house, my beau and I uncovered some You’ve Got Mail postcards from 1998! So what better way to recycle them but to send them as Valentines’ postcards to some of the guys? The Duck was thoroughly amused by it!
3. Stickam – This one is online, and i became addicted to it. Unfortunately it requires that you have a webcam to video chat (obviously), but it’s worth the $20 to be able to see and hear your besties around the country, and globe! This is my primary means of HellaTuff communicado, we chat about our business stuff, we can show off our latest fashions and home renovations, seriously – it’s awesome.
4. Letters – Around birthday times I usually write heartfelt notes. Ones that outline why I am glad they are my friend, how they are a good friend, and hilarious memories we share. I love to take pictures of us and blow them up with a copier and use it as an envelope, too. that’s always a great thing to get in the mail.
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world not possibly born until they arrive.” Anais Nin
Peppered Thought 