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Letter Writing During a Blizzard!

The best part about this New Year’s Resolution is that I have blog fodder for at least the rest of the month. Although some blog-worthy things happened yesterday. For one, snow!

Some of it had already melted by the time I woke up!

It wasn’t that much snow here, but of course people were all freaking out beforehand. Apparently there’s still “icy conditions” on the roads so it will be a fun drive to work later!

Also, my friend Meghan and I discovered that we were also BFF in preschool before we both moved away! Then her mom found all these preschool pictures of us! Crazy times.

Also, I’ve been writing letters!

Two of the letters I wrote this week were sort of unusual. One was to my brother in Houston, which will arrive in my signature cloud envelopes in a box, since I also had to send him this:

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The Letter Writing Continues

I think I’m just starting to realize that 31 letters is a lot of letters. When I decided to do this, I was adapting the idea of writing a letter every day for a year, so in comparison a month sounded like a piece of cake. As it turns out, it’s one of those cakes at the Chocolate Bar which have like ten layers and you can never finish a piece and even if you do you feel kind of ill afterwards. Okay, not quite like that. I haven’t felt ill yet. But this is only Day 7!

Luckily some people responded to my facebook plea for their addresses because otherwise this would have stopped on, like, Day 4. I was happy and a little bit surprised with some people who volunteered their whereabouts since I haven’t talked to some of them in a really long time. This initially made the letter writing kind of awkward; should I try to sum up the past six years of my life somehow? How much do they even know about my life now, gleaned from facebook status updates and random, ninth-hand gossip? Is it as little as I know about theirs? What do they even care about now that I can write about? No idea! But eventually I decided that was okay, and just kind of went with it.

For some reason it’s easier for me to say things in letters than in conversation or email. I guess it’s the time you get to compose your thoughts that you don’t get face to face, plus the time delay in their receiving it which lends a measure of distance too. Not that every letter I’ve written so far has contained dramatic confessions. Or at least true dramatic confessions. Sometimes I get bored and just make up gossip about shared acquaintances, such as when I revealed to Trevor that someone in our O-Week group is an undercover CIA operative. Although I’m not sure that’s made up; it seems pretty obvious. Bet you can’t guess who!

Here is the current letter map, as of today!

Hopefully the first few people I wrote to will be getting their letters today or tomorrow! Just because I promised to write one a day doesn’t mean I actually mail one a day. Sometimes it’s dark and I’m afraid if I walk to the mailbox I’ll literally freeze to death! My greatest regret would be not finishing my New Year’s Resolution. That, and dying.

New Year’s Resolution Update!

I know it’s only been 4 days, but so far my New Year’s Resolution to write a letter every day has been a success! So, yeah, I’ve written four letters. Here are where my letters are on their way to right now!

I realize I should maybe have bought some real stationary instead of plain computer paper. Also probably some up to date stamps instead of putting on more postage than necessary because I only have 41 cent stamps for some reason:

Although my cloud envelopes are killer

I assume if you receive such a letter you will just think “WOW! Two stamps! So much better than one! Patricia is amazing!” Exactly.

New Year’s Resolution: Letter Writing Project

So, normally, I am not one for New Year’s Resolutions. In fact, my feelings about them have already been summed up in musical form by Rhett and Link:

However, this year, I have been inspired! After reading about a bunch of different people who wrote a letter to a different person every day for a year, I have decided to rekindle my love affair with the USPS. Yeah, we’ve flirted pretty regularly for the past twenty years, and a few times I thought it was going to turn into a more serious thing. Then I hooked up with the Royal Mail while in Scotland and it stopped speaking to me for awhile, but I am making a resolution that this year will be different. I am going to win back USPS the only way I can think of: by writing a letter to a different person every day for a month in January.

I know, it’s not as cool as for a whole year, but I want to start off slow. Can’t rush these things; wouldn’t want the USPS to feel pressured into entering into some sort of commitment. So I’m just going for a month. This still means that I will need 31 separate people to send letters to, which is less than my number of facebook friends, but more than the number of entries in my address book.

So, if you would like to be the recipient of an awesome letter sometime in January, email/facebook message me your address! Or maybe I already have it and you will receive a letter WHETHER YOU WANT TO OR NOT! Ha ha. Fools.

13 Adventures: #13 A Kid In King Arthur’s Court

You may think that this is kind of an anticlimactic last adventure to my 13 Adventures series. But then you probably don’t understand the entire awesomeness that is A Kid In King Arthur’s Court!

I have never been so glad (and shocked) that something made the jump from VHS! Here is the sitch, if, for some reason, you’ve never seen this masterpiece:

Calvin, that guy from American Pie, needs to learn a valuable lesson about standing up for himself and courage and all that. Then an earthquake/half-dead wizard’s spell transports him to an extremely loose adaptation of King Arthur’s Court!! Unfortunately, the aging King Arthur is being bamboozled by Lord Belasco, he of the enormous forehead, and Merlin tells Calvin from where he is astrally projected onto well water that if Calvin saves Camelot, Merlin will help him find a way home. So Calvin trains to be a knight with Daniel Craig, the Master at Arms, and Arthur’s youngest daughter, Katie, while his eldest daughter, Kate Winslet, is being CRUELLY SOLD OFF as the prize in a tournament all the while cross dressing as the mysterious Black Knight to Robin Hood the shit out of Camelot’s surrounding towns.

The best part about this movie is the fact that everyone finds Calvin’s odd speech, clothes, and backpack full of 1990s tricks charming instead of demonic. Instead of being burned as a witch, he is able to introduce Camelot to: CD players, rollerskates, bubble gum, super glue, bicycles, 90s slang, and hamburgers. He also seems to know a lot about how to smelt things?

My favorite scene is where Calvin makes Princess Katie a hamburger with tomatoes, which she calls “poisonous love apples”, which, I swear, Steven and I have debated the historical accuracy of on at least two separate occasions. She tries the hamburger for the first time and says, “Good! I mean… BAD!” since Calvin has previously explained that “If something’s good than it’s bad, if it’s cool than it’s hot!” I sometimes still feel the urge to say things are “Good… I mean BAD!” after tasting things Steven cooks for the first time.

“Tis not heart burn… tis heart ache! You are in love, little one!” As you might expect, Calvin is totes crushing on Princess Katie, and Kate Winslet ends up getting together with Daniel Craig, even though he is only a lowly Master at Arms! Yay! I’m glad Camelot’s only aggressor in Arthur’s twilight years is an vaguely Mediterranean Lord with a huge forehead, instead of, you know, that whole Mordred thing or the Guinevere/Lancelot adultery fiasco.

13 Adventures: #10 Bathrobe Hunt

Yesterday I decided my mission was to buy Steven an early Christmas present: the fluffiest, softest, best bathrobe ever. Since we are going to glorious H-Town for Christmas, I figured I might not have room in my suitcase for a glorious bathrobe, since I was planning on buying one made out of the soft wool of at least fifty lambs. So I feel no guilt for this early Christmas gift-giving.

Unfortunately, to do this, we had to go to the mall, which is basically the absolute worst place to be the Sunday before Christmas. Actually it’s a lot like Dawn of the Dead, but with more zombies.

The original with the helicopter, not the remake with the dog


Everyone was kind of scary and aggressive, and were it not for my Florida theme park-bred abilities to negotiate crowds effectively, Steven and I might still be trapped there amidst the badly echoing “live” Christmas music. Luckily I am awesome and after much questing, we got what we came for.

Steven told me I was way weird for taking pictures of him trying on bathrobes, but I told him I NEEDED photographic evidence of adventurousness

And everyone knows going to the mall the Sunday before Christmas takes bravery, fortitude, cunning, feats of strength, and noble bearing. Basically, we are knights now is what I’m saying.

Steven is also trying out a new hat, as you can see. Usually he only wears classy fedoras like some kind of private detective (picture pending) so it is a big step.

13 Adventures: #9 Southern Season

So this is kind of a lame adventure because I didn’t bring my camera, but it is the only thing remotely adventurous I did today, besides play Super Mario 64, which is even less visually appealing. So: Southern Season is this giant store that sells gourmet food plus lots of tableware, but I never go in that section. They also have cooking utensils, pots, and pans, all extremely overpriced, plus greeting cards, some North Carolina/UNC merchandise, and a fancy restaurant attached. Do not be fooled by any of these add-ons. It is really all about the food.

And, for me, even more specifically, all about the chocolate. They have a massive chocolate counter where you can get almost anything from Godiva to locally made truffles. Plus another whole aisle of chocolate bars with anything from mint to pink peppercorns to bacon to varying kinds of sea salt in them. Personally, I am a huge fan of salty chocolate so I always stop here, at least to look! There’s also a section with international candy/treats and kinds that are hard to find now, like Fruit Stripe gum. My other favorite thing to get here is from the locally-made/North Carolina section, Carolina Moonshine Crunch. It is basically chex mix covered in white chocolate. I used to get almost the same thing when I was younger at this macadamia farm–except there it also had macadamia nuts in it and was called “White Trash”. Today we were mostly getting Christmas presents, but since we were stuck behind these meandering old people right next to the Carolina Moonshine Crunch I assumed it was a sign that I should buy some for myself. Basically, it is like eating a dream.

Also available at Southern Season: a cutting board shaped like North Carolina (guaranteed to make your bread or cheese taste 30% more like lighthouses and the Daniel Boone). Lighthouses and Daniel Boone are what North Carolina is all about.

13 Adventures: #1 Visiting Steven at Work!

So I know lately I have been kind of MIA and have broken my WITHOUT FAIL promise yet again (which, let’s face it, has been broken so often it’s pretty much just made of masking tape and hope now). My one excuse is: exams. But now they are over and I am relatively free until flying to Houston for Christmas! I have therefore decided to have an adventure EVERY DAY for the next 13 days!

This is less of an ambitious promise than it sounds, if you know anything about my personal definition of “adventure”. It’s all in how you tell it. I’m pretty sure I could describe a trip to the grocery store in such a way that you would be just waiting for the movie deal. And maybe I will sometime in the next 13 days if I run out of ideas.

Today’s adventure: visiting Steven at work! This isn’t something I do often at all, mostly because I have no time and because it’s an hour away. It’s a very pretty drive though, through the middle of nowhere and over Jordan Lake, which was really calm and clear today. The road snakes through the woods; the speed limit is pretty high but there are lots of turns so I always end up pretending to be The Stig1. Plus, a small amount of snow from last weekend is still hanging around in shady parts:

Not enough for a snowman, but enough to look nice!

Steven’s work is in the tiny–unbelievably tiny–town of Holly Springs, whose main claim to fame is that it also has the closest Sonic to our house. This is Steven’s office!

In Holly Springs, everything tries to look like your great aunt's house, even if it is a web design company!

And here is Steven’s personal office!

Notice the blank screen. I'm pretty sure he only pretends to work.

Then I took him to the only place to eat (besides Sonic) in Holly Springs, My Way Tavern! They have tasty “Cajun Fried Potato Slices”, which turned out to just be fancy potato chips! Things always taste better when they have fancy names.

And Steven always takes forever to decide!

It’s okay, it’s not his 13 Adventures. In fact, whenever I go to a restaurant this week, I’m just going to tell the waiter “BRING ME THE MOST ADVENTUROUS THING!” Definitely the only way to go. I will have to find an adventuring hat to wear tomorrow. What will tomorrow’s adventure be? EVEN I DON’T KNOW YET. I’m that adventurous, you have no idea.


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