Things that make me happy

mollusque commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

*blushes*

June 12, 2011

Prolagus commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

Postcards? Are you on Postcrossing too?

June 12, 2011

ruzuzu commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

Both of my grandmothers had postcard collections. I'm working on my own collection, but I'm not on Postcrossing (yet).

June 12, 2011

bilby commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

I'm on Postcrossing. But I don't collect postcards. Why am I there?

*has existential moment*

June 12, 2011

sionnach commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

The Santa Fox assures me, his Parisian representative, that he is honored to be on this list. Indeed, he is deeply honored. He is currently a wee bit exhausted, having spent far too much of the night out dancing with the sweet tooth fairies, and some of their less reputable brethren.

By an amazing twist of fate, tomorrow and Tuesday turn out to be two of the four days a year that the Santa Fox sets aside for such "old media" activities as "sending postcards to friends". By today's loose definition of "friend"ship, pretty much everyone on Wordnik is my friend and eligible to receive a lovely postcard from Paris. Some of you even met the older, more demanding, criteria for friendship, in my humble opinion. You know who you are.

Anyway, if anyone wants to receive a lovely Paris postcard from the Santa Fox (which could be worth millions to your children after his demise), all that is required is to send him the necessary information* care of my e-mail address on gmail. This takes the form myfirstnamemymiddleinitialmylastname followed by the usual gmaildotcom ending. My middle name is Michael.

*: this would be your name, your address, and whether or not you would like your lovely postcard to include the Eiffel Tower. Feel free to send me a private message on Facebook with the information, if you prefer, but given Facebook's general laxness about privacy, gmail might be the better option.

June 12, 2011

sionnach commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

Both of my grandmothers had postcard collections. I'm working on own collection.

This sentence is also true for our family, if you replace the word "postcard" with the word "grudge".

June 12, 2011

ruzuzu commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

Ruzuzut alors! I've sent my message to Santa. :-)

June 12, 2011

PossibleUnderscore commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

Awww... this list makes me happy.

June 13, 2011

ruzuzu commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

Prolagus, I added postcards to the iroquoisy list. Not long after writing that bit about my postcard-collecting grandmothers, I got word that the second of the two had passed away. It's one of those bittersweet things where we're all glad she's not in pain anymore, but it's brought up a lot of stories. A couple of years ago--when my grandmother was first starting to lose her memory--I had gone to visit her and my grandfather. I was saying something about looking through my other grandmother's postcards, and my grandfather said, "Oh, you like postcards? I just threw a bunch of old ones away yesterday." The garbage haulers hadn't come yet, so he let me sit at the kitchen table and sort through the coffee grounds, egg shells, and used Kleenexes to find what remained of my grandmother's collection. There were some my father and uncles had sent from trips to camp, some from my great aunt's trips to Barcelona or Paris, some from each new daughter-in-law, some with colorful scribbles from me and my cousins, and even some from people I didn't know who'd written just "I know how much you love getting cards, so here's another one for you." Yesterday my grandfather was saying none of us should worry about sending flowers or cards: "I already know that she's dead." I might still write one last card for her--if I feel compelled to mail it, I can just send it to my own address.

June 13, 2011

sionnach commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

'zuzu: I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother's death. Your last comment below reminded me of this wonderful poem I came across, shortly after my own mother had died of cancer. I think the link below should still work (it's to a Word document, with the text of the poem, on my website). Mary Jo Salter, the author, is one of my favorite American poets (her husband, Brad Leithauser, is also a poet, and a fiction writer). I hope that the link works, and that you like the poem. It was first published in "The New Republic", probably around 1986.

Dead Letters

June 13, 2011

hernesheir commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

Had I such a list, ruzuzu and her playful Weltanschauung would be the first entry.

June 13, 2011

ruzuzu commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

@hernesheir: As you can see, you're already on this list of mine. :-)

@sionnach: Thank you. I've gone through a couple of stages when it comes to reading poetry--I'm back to being able to appreciate the poems that are capable of encouraging deep personal meaning in the reader. That one's a doozy. Some of the details are different--a couple of years ago I lost my own mother to something more like an aneurysm than cancer--but somehow I still feel that I understand exactly what's going on in that poem. It was helpful to read it now. I'm sorry for your loss, too.

June 14, 2011

reesetee commented on the list things-that-make-me-happy--1

Thanks for the list, ruzuzu, and for including me in it. Thanks for the poem, sionnach.

June 18, 2011