Snail Mail

I love letters.

I love sending them and receiving them.

It all started when an old friend of mine moved to the interior of BC temporarily. She was up there by herself, so I got the big idea to send her snail mail to cheer her up. Well, little did I know that the idea wasn't only mine - our very first letters crossed paths in the mail and she and I have been writing ever since.

After that we lived in the same city (Vancouver) for the rest of the time we've been letter writing. Who cares!? Getting mail in your mailbox other than bills and junk is so rewarding and fun. The best days are those when you get more than one letter. It's rare, but it happens.

Since then, I've started letter writing to four other friends regularly. Two in Vancouver, one in Williams Lake and another in New Zealand*. These are all people I actually know, not pen-pals I haven't met.

In the last 3-4 years of my grandparents lives, I started writing them as well. My Grandpa and I were always incredibly close, but his hearing got so bad we couldn't talk on the phone anymore so it was a good way to communicate with him. Every week he would pester my Grandma asking if my letter had come that day.

After they died, I decided to keep up the correspondence so now I write my Mom and Dad. My Dad now looks forward to the letters every week that my Grandpa used to anticipate!

And these aren't just letters on white lined paper. No way. They include stickers, crazy stationary (I've been known to send letters composed entirely on Harbour Air baggage tags, paint chips, inside Caramilk wrappers...) and never, ever the real name of the person on the sender or receiver.

My first letter writing chum send me a letter composed on those thin mandarin orange wrappers. Oh, the options are endless. I won't post a picture of my stationary/sticker/stamp stash because it's ridiculous and I wouldn't want to ruin it for my buddies who read this blog.

I will post a picture of my stash of saved letters though**:


This is the only downfall. I don't want to throw any letters away, just think - I now have a 6 year history with my oldest letter writing chum! As you can see, my stash needs an updated container - this old stretched shoe box isn't cutting it anymore.

*I don't write my New Zealand chum nearly enough considering our super close friendship. I'm working on it though.
**That's right, a friend wrote me a letter on a fish. One of the best.