A real, live letter!

A couple of weeks ago, I had a few minutes at work all to myself, so I sat down and wrote a letter. Yes, a real, live letter on paper with a pen in my crappy, crazy print/script. I even made a copy of it to keep with all my old letters. Have you ever done that before? Made a copy of your own letter to keep so you could read it later on?

I wrote the letter to Jess, who has always been THE letter writer. I have tons of old letters from our college days in an old photo box which I took out recently and reread, laughing my full head off. I miss those days. I guess I wanted a little piece of that back.

So here is the letter, pretty much in its entirety. No need to read it if you don't feel like it; there's lots of inside jokes only Jess and I will get:

Hey there Chica-

When's the last time one of us did this? Oh, the days of writing letters and enclosing little magazine clippings or photocopied pictures of Scott Weiland (which I still have, by the way). Where did those days go? I remember both my eagerness and greediness, ripping into those homemade envelopes, feasting my eyes on pages of your print/script thoughts. I came across a HUGE bundle of your letters from our college days not too long ago; they were neatly elasticed together, still in the envelopes they came in. Kevin's letters from the Navy were in there, too. I read through a few of yours, trying to recall who this boy was and where I was in my life then. I noticed my name changes on the envelopes from V----- to C------ back to V-----, and the address changes, as well, from ** Catherine to *** N------. There were quite a few about A+; it took me a while to remember his real first name. I wish I had some of the letters I wrote back; I wonder what faerytale lies I was spinning as my first marriage was being flushed down the toilet (and no, your dad didn't have his finger on the handle for that one, heh heh). I have the distinct feeling that I would laugh ferociously at my younger self. She thought she was so smuckin' fart.

I came across a padded envelope filled with goodies from you, too. Inside, there was a letter you wrote to Tom and me. I remember the day that package arrived. I called him up right away, and he came racing over. I remember the two of us spending hours going through each individual thing you had sent, and the both of us getting so excited when we found you had sent doubles of a few things with each of our names neatly printed on the back. I still have my lovely laminated copy of "The Gospel According to Luke"; I proudly displayed it in my cube here at work for some time.

I don't know why I've felt the need for so much introspection and reminiscences these passed few months; maybe it was the MRI, maybe it was the gray hair. Maybe I miss the good ole days when you were still on the right coast or when we spoke at least once a day when you were out in L.A. I still can't believe we managed to talk as much as we did then; when did we find the time to work?

I think back on all these things, but instead of really longing for them, they simply put a smile on my face. These two girls were absolutely crazy, yet they thought they had everything under control. I think that makes me laugh the most.

I miss days at Beans Cuisine drinking coffee, writing poetry, talking and laughing (and making fun of the herd at Archie's - well, until the day we finally ventured over there ourselves and became two of the cows in the sea of bulls). I remember going there with Jen D. and Michael Mouse and that one time we took Audra there.

I remember even further back to our high school days and going to Marnick's after a morning of finals. How many times did we do that? I remember Saturdays visiting you at The Pouch and Chinese Fire Drills on the exit ramp on our way to the "Hamlet" cast party. That was the night I tried weed for the first time and either you or Kristen wanted one munchkin at D&Ds. The same night you laughed your ass off about eyebrows while there was a cop sitting behind us the whole time. I still can't believe we didn't get busted that night.

Then there was that night we stole away from my house for a late showing of "Interview with a Vampire", which I will always somehow associate with "the stakeout". They happened around the same time because I remember parking in front of your house after the movie, hoping the guy would drive by. Were we on crack?

I can go back even further to Saturdays at Our Lady of Grace followed by a walk to WaWa's for FijiFruits and vegging out in front of the TV watching "Dr. Fad" and "I'm Telling". Yeah, I sometimes forget that I'm 28 and not 27, but i will forever remember the sweatshirt of Wacky Wall-Walkers. Funny what our brains retain.

I remember when we first met in Mr. Moyher's class, and you thought Dan and I were brother and sister. I remember Sean sporting his proton pack. I remember "Hominy grits do you think there are?" I remember that God-awful picture of me and M in my room holding my Pound Purry you took all those years ago which I now always associate with the mountain of Frosted Flakes, even though those two events happened years apart. That was the day Trezbo and Ozbert were born while we were playing MTV's Remote Control on my Nintendo.

I hope this little stroll down memory lane is putting as big a smile on your face as it is on mine. I think I'll even photocopy this letter so I can read it again years from now. Will I still remember all of these things? How many more gray hairs will I have? Which state will you be living in? How far away are we now from where we thought we would be then? I am most definitely not a teacher living in a cool city, with hordes of students hanging on my every word. That dream has long since died.

But I am happy. That part I got right.

I love ya, hon-
Alicia