Travels and Letters

DNortonLand was wandering around Athens and London last week and forgot to post updates. So expect awesome pictures/commentary on the Parthenon/London/the state of Europe/the meaning of Christmas over the next few days and weeks. If I can figure out how to upload the pix into the computer.

In other news...the letter project is completed! 2010's goal to write a letter each week to someone new (along with 2 more letters each month to the same people) was a complete success. In my mind at least. I ended up writing more letters than that, as I didn't really limit myself to just one letter per week sometimes, and I have DEFINITELY written more if you count all of the postcards that I have sent as a part of my travels.

In thinking what it means for a New Year's Resolution, though, I'm not sure what I gained out of this project (other than the chance to use old stationery and purchase some newer, more awesome stationery... and then use that, too).

I'm not sure if it improved my penmanship. I think my lines are straighter, but I'm not sure my handwriting is any more legible (or prettier for that matter--I've always liked my handwriting, but have never felt like it qualifies as 'pretty'. Unique, maybe. But 'pretty'? Not quite).

I'm also not sure if it actually improved my writing ability. I think it did, because I tend to take more care constructing sentences in my letters, since I know that I won't have the opportunity to correct a misinterpretation. At the same time, though, I highly doubt that it helped me improve my academic writing. I think I need a different resolution for that.

So...will I keep writing letters? I sure hope so. I've had a lot of fun this year, and everybody that I have talked to really liked getting a letter in the mail. Those reactions are priceless, and even better are the ones where people decided to write back, even though they really didn't need to. I think I would like to change it up in the coming year, though. Writing to a different person every week sometimes led to some really similar letters, as I felt that I had to introduce the project with every letter I wrote. I didn't have to do that with the letters that I sent to the same people every month, so I think that I am going to adjust the project to where I am writing to the same 4-6 people every month.

Also, Brother K and M just got me some gorgeous stationery, and I really want to use it.

Even though I know that you're really only supposed to make one New Year's Resolution in order for it to be completely effective, there are one or two more coming up on the horizon. So, I'm looking at the continuation of the letter project as just a continuation of a good habit, not as another resolution.

Letters

As you know, I've got a letter project going on. Nothing much...just write one letter a week to a different friend/acquaintance and then two more per month to the same people. It's been great fun, and now that I'm almost done, I've got some ponderings to do.

To repeat or not to repeat? That is the question. And that is a question that won't be decided until the end of December.

However, I have recently discovered a new, far more serious pondering that requires my full attention: the dilemma of international postal systems. How do they work? How does a letter addressed to a city in a different country (whose name might be spelled differently depending on the language) still arrive at its proper destination?

Can anyone answer that, because I have not the slightest idear.

For instance, I write to a friend in Poland often. When I was in the States, I never questioned how the letters arrived to her house when I had written the address in English. I just didn't.

Now, however, I am in Spain, and Spanish people don't really speak English all that well. I am still writing her address just as I knew how to write it back in the States, which means that it is addressed to someone in Krakow, Poland (not Cracovia, Polonia, as they call it in Spanish), and yet they still somehow arrive at her place without any problems.

I don't get this. Do all Spanish postal workers know how to read English? Do all Polish postal workers know English (or even Spanish for that matter. I'm sure there's someone in this country who has sent a letter to Poland and written the city name in Spanish)?

Is there a letter party somewhere? Do they al hook up and then travel with their letter companions to their new country?

Is there a big international mailing centre where all the letters of the world reunite and then go their happy, separate ways? Is there?

These are the things that I worry about when I have final projects to attend to.

Dear Mr. PC City dude:

Thank you so much for getting rid of that pesky virus from my flash drive. I mean, I know that it really didn't affect me so much because I have a Mac, but I still was really afraid to use anything that was on there, or even to transfer it to my mac and then email it to myself because, well, just because.

See, I've gotten a really nasty virus on a flash drive before. It apparently made duplicate copies of my files and then hid the real ones and was apparently a pain in the butt to get rid of, and I really didn't want to mess with the three random files that existed, since I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to computer-y things.

So, thank you Mr. PC City dude. I know that you said it was a tontería and that it only took you 5 minutes to fix, but you really didn't have to do it for free. I mean, this was my first time in your store. I didn't even buy anything to make up for it. But your very wonderful customer service has ensured that I will totes come back whenever I need anything remotely computer-y related.

That's all, and muchas gracias.

DNorton

Dear Frank Martin:

You are awesome. Part of me wishes that I had a little Frank Martin on my shoulder to yell and scream at me every day to be a better person and live up to my potential. And part of me is deathly terrified of that image.

Frank Martin...hell hath no fury.

A little Frank Martin on my shoulder (like a little guardian angel) would be so...motivating. For instance, you've got some fantastically motivational quotes:

"I try to teach kids and I demand that people maximize who they are. I don't accept people not striving to be the best they can be. That's what I've been doing my whole life. I don't accept people doing less than what they're capable of and I demand they maximize what they can be."--From K-State Media Day 10/21/2010


And then you have the quotes that make me scared to sleep at night. 


"Wednesday, if they don't come in and compete, I am gonna destroy 'em". 


If I were one of your players, that would have made me cry.


So, dear Frank, please keep doing what your doing and motivating the world. But If I ever get the chance to meet you, please be nice.


Thanks,
D


PS: It's a great day to be a Wildcat!


PPS: I can't wait for November 2.


PPPS: Do you think that they will show K-State b-ball games in Madrid?

A Letter

Dear Colgate Baking Soda and Peroxide Toothpaste:

You are so perfectly wonderful, and it is a shame that I am squeezing your dregs out of the tube. Your slightly salty, yet refreshing, flavor will be dearly missed here, but I know that you live on in the toothpaste aisles of grocery stores across the United States.

Oh, WHY did I not think to pack more than one tube of you in my suitcase? Oh, HOW could I have been so shortsighted? Your delightful texture, so pasty and peroxide-y, is the perfect freshening substance, a cooling respite after a day full of garlic-y foods. (Mmmm, garlic! but yurgh, garlic...)

But wait, my dentally-hygienic love! I have hearkened upon your dear cousin, Colgate Total. Just as freshening, with 24 hour whitening/protection. Though he is lacking in taste and texture, he has the distinct advantage of constant presence. While you shall always hold a dear place in my heart, please know that I never meant to hurt you. There is just too much distance between us.

Sincerely,
DNorton

Montblanc Meisterstuck

My favorite pen in the world--simple and elegant, with a refinement beyond measure.  I have one, and I am deathly terrified that someday I will misplace it, and then my entire life will be devoid of meaning.  

I don't know where my Montblanc Meisterstuck came from, but Mom and I think it was maybe my grandfather's, and it somehow came to us after his death.  I only know that I found it one day this past winter, amid the oodles of writing utensils scattered about my (now defunct) creativity room.  As Dumbledore says, "The wand chooses the wizard," and this one very clearly chose me. Well, first it chose Grandpa, but then it chose me.  

I am currently using it to write my letters for my letter project (which are coming along quite splendidly), but it ran out of ink on Monday.  Since I went to Chicago on Tuesday, I just stocked up on refills at the Montblanc store on North Michigan Avenue (where the salesman was very nice and didn't try to sell me something I couldn't afford, like a new Montblanc pen, or one of their pretty leather briefcases.  Of course, this was after I informed him that I am but a poor and lowly student, and the fact that I had no money to spend might have dampened his sales pitch).  

If the pen was indeed my grandfather's (and I'm 99% sure that it was), it really makes it that much more special.  It's not just a pen, but one that was meant to be passed on, from generation to generation.  

Quality.  It's good stuff.  

Letters

In my first post, I mentioned a letter project. For my New Year's Resolution for 2010, I decided to write a letter per week to a person of my acquaintance: friend, relative, teacher, family friend, whoever (whomever?). I'm calling it The Great Letter Project of 2010, and I have it all planned out in Excel and everything.

The goal is 52 letters to 52 different people over the course of the year. So far, I've stuck to the project like glue (maybe even written a few extra letters), and I've really enjoyed it. Writing letters in this age of email, twitter, texting and IM is just so different, and I have greatly enjoyed the reactions of the people to whom I write.

What I've discovered is that writing a letter doesn't actually take very long (half the time it takes me longer to find a person's address than it does to write the letter), and I enjoy it far more than writing an email or a text. I also really like getting letters back (or even emails and phone calls), which reminds me that the best way to keep in touch with people is to reach out yourself.

And...I've learned a great way to keep a New Year's Resolution, which is to resolve to do something once per week (as opposed to a resolution which requires daily attention). It's far easier to have 7 days to accomplish a task than to only have 24 hours.