5 days a week

By now this is old news, but I must point out that it is a real shame that the U.S Post Office now has a 5 day work week like the rest of us (well...considering the work/life balance conundrum most of my friends have maybe not like the rest of us). The Post Office now opens just after most of us go to work and closes just before we leave Monday through Friday. It seems that now only the retired, out-of-work and sleepy night-shift workers can buy stamps and mail packages from our beloved mailmen. The rest of us find ourselves in Fedex, after work hours, or searching for stamps on Amazon. A sad season for snail mail and another sign of a declining Postal Service. At least, I still have a post office box the corner of my block.

An online sale

On the back of this postcard, Lynn wrote that she had a gorgeous roll-top desk but that it was not comfortable and difficult to do work on. I could immediately imagine what she meant as it reminded me of a roll-top desk owned by my grandparents. Mostly closed, I always thought it was a good place to hide nice things rather than a suitable place to work. Lynn was thinking about experimenting with a Craigslist sale, rather than let it sit and collect papers and dust. Craigslist is a big web move for a woman without facebook, twitter or even a smartphone. How did your experiment go, Lynn?

Art Club

Lynn made these next two postcards with her sister-in-law last year using water color and permanent marker. They remind me of my 8th grade Art Club. It was the first year that I really began to immerse myself in the art crew at school and I felt like I had found 'my people'. An oasis in junior high school. One project I worked on that year was a flip book that could be hung and had pages that looked very similar to this - fine pen  lines outlining wild, bright colors. I drew tiny men walking through these colorful mazes and remember enjoying adding the minute detail. 

Winter argyle

Winter is a time for argyle. Lynn's postcard made me think of a taxi ad that I saw in San Francisco last month on my way to the airport. The ad showed women and men in brightly colored, knee-high, argyle socks. Men wore them while skate-boarding and playing sports and the women were posing sexily with basically only socks on (making me me think that it is probably the absence of other clothes not the socks that were sexy). The ads made it seem as though argyle socks were the newest, hottest thing one could imagine. This made me laugh as it is a bit like trying to convince everyone that earmuffs will change your life.

Argyle on winter postcards, however, now that is a different story.

Finding ink and the left-side of your brain

Just as I am months late with posting this year, Lynn was late sending postcards last year. Determined to catch up, she went online for inspiration and found some ink drawings that reminded her of art supplies she had hidden away after college. After digging around she found her old art kit, looked to Jordan and Micky as models and took a stab at painting with water and ink. 

It is always nice to get back to art after the new year, even if it takes a while to settle your mind and find inspiration. Isn't it? Whenever it has been a while since I took time to draw, I first feel my the left side of my brain struggling to engage. Once it does, I relax. It is as if the left side of my brain lets out a big sigh of relief as I get into my rhythm. As if to say - ah, she remembers me. :-)

Full Circle

Maybe not the best title, but this card was inspired by a Facebook post- so it seems like full circle when people start making handmade cards from digital media again! Jessica was preparing for a busy few months at work, but there was a little light at the end of the tunnel- which is sometimes all you need ;-)

Icy Dreams

Oddly, while most of us were dreaming of sunny, warm weather Jessica was back in Ghana dreaming of icy, cold days in Michigan.  Jessica was excited that the following winter she would be back stateside to enjoy the snow and cold wind!  How are you liking it friend? 

Comfort

Jessica continued a theme...relaxing on the couch with her mom! They watched a ton of Glee.  Its funny that she wrote about this comfortable time at home, because that's what this farm image evokes for me.  I have a secret (well, not anymore!) wish to take and collect my own photographs of old barns and possible live in a barn turned into awesome home!

This reminded Jessica of when her Mom would tape whole seasons of Survivor and send the (VHS!) tapes to us in college.  We would devour them all at once, and doing this was one of my favorite memories about being roomates.  I remember lots of life that happened around our survivor marathons.  Speaking of moms, Jessica also wrote about her excitement that I was going to be one.  She had tons of questions for me and was ready to be super supportive.

Harvest Scene

Jessica was back in the US for last year's Thanksgiving.  She took the time to do all the things that she loved! shopping, cooking vegetables, throwing pots, and drawing.  Jess told me this scratchboard art was inspired by Oskar and Theodor Hofmeister's "The Haymaker".  She and her mom spent Thanksgiving watching "Sahah" and enjoying time together.  While Jessica wrote it wasn't a typical Thanksgiving, I think spending time with family is always the traditional thing to do.

Good neighbors

I'm not sure if this is a scene from her neighborhood, but on this card Jessica both was thankful for amazing people that lived right near her and tried to get me to visit.  Perhaps to meet them? She wrote it had been too long since I had seen her in the flesh...very true pal. I never made it to her corner of Africa when I traveled there in July. But we talked on the phone often enough that I felt like I knew her neighbors and sounds of her neighborhood. 

Thank you!

Its Christmas day and the end of the year, which is always a good time to reflect on the year. I have been a bit behind in all sorts of communication - phone calls, letters, emails, bills, faxes - you name it and I am surely late.  When we started this project, we agreed to be forgiving with each other. No judgement when we fall a bit behind or crank out a wacky card. In honor of another year of mail and just because it is fun, here is a big thank you song for 2012 postcards here. Hope you are having a great day Lynn!

Family

Its nice when Jess titles her cards for me, especially this one!  I'm not sure I would have guessed these people on stilts were her Dad and her brother racing.  On this card she lamented not seeing her family very often.  Here's hoping each of you can be with family this holiday season.  It can be fun to miss one (or two) Christmases or Thanksgivings while on an adventure, but after a while a person craves home!

What a bikini!

Can you cheat at this project? 
Lynn wondered a year ago when she sent me a card she made in 2009 for a party that she had helped plan at a former job. Not surprisingly, she had been made 'invitation guru' for holiday parties and the slew of baby showers that had hit the office during that period.

In my opinion, Lynn was not cheating but she was enabling strange office behavior as she created this card as an invitation for an office pool party.  This explains the bikini on the grinning snowman - er, I mean snow-woman - but it does nothing to explain why someone would want to attend an office pool party. Is it only me who would prefer to leave my glaring thighs to my colleagues' imagination? Perhaps more precisely, I am hoping that they have no imagination or interest in imagining such things at all!

Unexpected and poetic 2

Jessica was on a lot of airplanes and on a roll with looking deeper at life last September.  She called it here traveling series.  Jessica took a long flight with her Dad and had an encounter with a stewardess. You know the kind that happens between strangers on a plane overnight where you are sleeping and eating with perfect strangers? It's formal and intimate all at the same. Jessica commented "she was uniform, and then she wasn't."

Sampling the Nile

Inspired by seeing They Draw and Cook, Lynn drew this while making brownies. A fact that I love, because I recognize her bowl.

Lynn also shared that she ate Ethiopian food for the first time last year. She had been intrigued by this new cuisine at the Blue Nile, but also a little unsure. Her final review was that the restaurant decor was fun, but she could pass on what she saw as Indian-like spices and funny bread. Since she is not a big fan of lentils or peas, I suppose this is not a huge surprise. A girl after my own heart, however, she did like the kale and cabbage... really, who doesn't love vegetables?

(Note - Lynn, I am vowing to post these cards the last few weeks of cards once I am back in the US. I have been using my cell phone in lieu of a proper scanner!)

They Draw and Cook

Lynn hosted Thanksgiving dinner for her family last year. She shared that she successfully made a turkey, but it finished 2 hours too early so she had to find a creative way to keep it warm (wrapping it in tin foil and a towel and sticking it in a 'cooler') so that they could use the oven to cook other fixings. Her T-day meal was not only filled with laughter and cooking lessons - it was also filled with eager excitement about that fact that she was expecting. Happy news that enhances an already happy event.

This card was inspired by the book They Draw and Cook. The loose sketches in the cookbook illustrate basic recipes. 

Unexpected and poetic 1

Seeing the unexpected, Jessica saw a man on her plane with a sparkle in his eye...only to realize a few moments later her was a prisoner in transit.  She wrote about him "flying free for a moment.". I re read this card to post about it, and I wondered where he is now, was he deported and sent home or locked up somewhere?  You always see these scenarios in movies, then even reading about them in real life feels jarring and raw.  I like her drawing of him bright and full of life!

Time warp

Forgive the little time warp going on on the blog!  For now, I found this interesting news about a postcard lost for decades and just recently delivered to half of a pen pal pair.  Read details here.

3 parts

Lynn sent a two part series last fall of what she called - 'Three Part Characters'

On the flip side of the first, Lynn wrote that school was a blur last year as she had to learn and do seven new psycho-social and cognitive evaluations with her students last autumn. A number that is far above what had been normal for high school level. She reflected that because of the pace at work, she had been socializing most with me - who was half way around the world in Accra - making her feel a bit hermit-like. Reading this while at work, I remember smiling because it was so similar to how I had been feeling.

On the second card, Lynn wrote that Jordan, her dog, had been having skin problems a lot. The veterinarian knew how to fix his itchy sad state, but the solution was horribly expensive because Jordan was allergic to dust mites and needed allergy medicine for life. Apparently, Lynn lamented, Jordan was a high maintenance dog in addition to being a badly behaved one.

With horribly chapped lips since the start of fall, Lynn wondered if the veterinarian would be willing to check her out too.  Funny how easy it is for us to care for others while we ignore ourselves. 

Punched flower

Falling behind. As it is the morning after the bi-annual changing of the clocks,  this is a fitting post and postcard. With no more than a few days at 'home' at a time, I have been flying fast since my last work trip and finding it hard to remember to bring postcards to the office to scan. Yes, I am behind on posting. But since time is literally changing, I have decided to fix this problem before I leave today on another long work trip.

It had been months since Lynn had drawn a postcard last autumn before she sat down to punch out this card using a needle. While she found making dots a soothing way of getting back into the groove, just as I do, she admitted that holding the tiny needle was hard on her hands. So even though the card turned out fantastically, she was left with 'a little claw hand' and thoughts on how to make the process less painful next time.

Around four years ago Lynn and I made a pact to send two postcards every month. It has not been easy or painless to keep our promise, but somehow we find our way even if it is delayed at times and keep thinking of new ways to transform a 4x6 card. Happy (slightly belated) Anniversary Pal!