I found a treasure trove

For some reason I was rummaging through some boxes of old stuff and I found a lot of old letters and photos. It wasn't exactly a huge surprise, as I know I've kept almost every letter I've ever received in the past. (For you youngsters reading, a "letter" is a piece of paper with writing on it, sent through the mail, i.e. placed in a box and then someone else carries it to its destination for you.) I have letters from friends, letters from family. High school friends, university friends, bat-lab friends (and other biology friends. But I like saying bat-lab.). Letters from former boyfriends, and from friends who were former boyfriends at the time they wrote. I found some forgotten letters from someone who had a crush on me that wasn't fully requited. I even have some letters from myself ... not to myself. But to my family or to a boyfriend, and somehow they ended up in my box of old stuff.

Many of them are in the envelopes still. Even looking at the envelopes brings back memories, without even pulling out the contents. I had forgotten the name of the street in Windsor where I lived in that crappy apartment with a man I never should have gotten so involved with at such a young age. ("I spent a year in Windsor one summer".) But my friends were sending me letters there. And the envelopes remind me of some of the exotic travels of many of my friends, and of the two whole summers that my mailing address was the E.E.E.J.N., a research station in rural Costa Rica where I received about 50% of the mail people sent me.



I've kept these things because to me, they are interesting. I have this idea that someday I will have the time to re-read all of this material, and I will be able to use it to write a fascinating memoir of my life (fictional or otherwise). I do realize that this would probably be of interest to me only.

But what I'm going to do is scan a few of the old photos or cards and use them as occasional fodder for this blog. And if you have ever written me a letter in the past 20 years or so - beware! (or be excited) - maybe I will feature a snippet. Names will be changed to protect the not-so-innocent, if necessary.

If you find this prospect terribly exciting, and you want to make sure you don't miss a single post, here's what you can do: Scroll down to the bottom of this page and click on the link that says " Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)". This way you will receive an e-mail every time I update this self-indulgent diary. Don't worry, I don't think it will happen too often.