Thank you

Well, its about time I updated!

I've received lots of cool stuff from you guys, thank you so much! Sorry, I've let the letters pile up for a bit!

Mel and Mary sent me the sweetest Easter cards, with Bunnies, natch! My fave time of year! Thanks ladies!

I got a Wonder Woman card from Lysa, thanks my fellow lady of letters! Check out her blog at: http://redspottedpatch.blogspot.com/

I've been getting these fabulous postcards from my friend Brenna, they were part of an art project she did for UNICEF. She just started sending them to me after I told her about the letter project. I didn't even have an address for her until recently, thanks Tara!


And of course I got letters from Tara, Sharli, Christine, Sandra, and Don.

Don's letter had a little somethin' extra in it, thank you for your continued patronage my friend, and I will abide by the guidelines outlined in your AWESOME 4 page letter! Thank you.

I'm certainly not back up to the blistering pace I set at the beginning of this project, but I'm def. rolling again. So more letters on the way! Send my your new addresses if you move!

xo
cb

Letters on the way! Slight change of plans though...

OK, so 500 letters in 100 days is totally not gonna happen, but I'm still writing 500 letters! So enjoy the letters for a few more months, And I'll focus on quality instead of quantity. Remember to let me know about any change of addresses as well please! I'll post more on this soon.

Gifts

This week I got gifts. I'm feeling like a very lucky girl. It's kind of hard to describe how it feels, so I'm just gonna say thank you.

Jana sent me a comic version of one of my letters, titled: The Clarinet. I'll post pictures, it's incredible. She makes my words look good.

Gabe sent a couple of CD's of music he's been listening to, which is really great because we haven't seen each other in about 15 years! What a cool way to catch up!

Christine sent me some stickers, or "seals" with bees and crows on them, you know me so well! No surprise really, when you consider we've known each other since kindergarten!

Nikki sent a writing assignment she did years ago, an autobiography, complete with a photograph. This one's a loaner, as it has obvious sentimental value. What an awesome thing to share. I can't wait to read it! And your handwriting is spectacular!

I also got letters from my dad (AKA Howard), Don sent me a letter and a postcard made out of a photograph, simple and elegant, I must say!

Last but certainly not least, through her incredible generosity, Sandra is making it possible for me to send out 200 more letters.

You can tell when I'm really emotional about something... it's the only time I shut up.

Thank you everyone.

xoxoxo
cb

200

Whew! I won't lie, I'm having a heck of a time keeping up. Feels good to be into the triple digits though, and almost half way there. I made and sent out about 50 postcards, just to change things up a bit, everyone on the list will get one I think, some will get 2. The postcards were supposed to help me catch up a bit, but I had so much fun making them, each one probably took almost twice as long to make and write as a letter. So uh, I didn't catch up, but I really enjoyed myself. Some of you will also be receiving some limited edition "5 minute drawings" done by Jim and myself, hopefully that won't be too disappointing, we tried to keep things interesting. I will be getting back to the actual written word very soon, promise. Part of me has just felt like I've had nothing to say lately. I've been a bit down and stressed about some projects for school, and I was getting tired of writing letter after letter about how "Meh" I felt. No one wants to hear that!

Anyway, One thing I've learned in this process is that even when I'm at my worst, the most tired, worn out, hungover, etc... there are still little moments of (relative) brilliance, little flashes of inspiration in between the "Meh", and those moments are golden. It teaches me not to pack it in just because I'm having a rough time getting started with the writing... don't give up so easily!

An acquaintance once told me that she loved to jog on days that she was hungover. I was a bit of a running enthusiast at this point, a lightweight for sure, but I did run three times a week. However, if ANYTHING was out of whack on a running day...headache, a little light headed, sleepy, I'd forget the whole thing, or go for a walk. So a hang over would be like... no way. But this girl was not a triathlete or anything, she just didn't place the same limitations on herself that I placed on myself. So the next time I didn't feel so hot on a running day, I went out anyway, and had a fine run. And it felt even better after I was finished!

I find the same thing with my writing, sometimes I'll try to write the whole day off just because I had a crappy sleep, or I'm feeling bitchy, and I'll sit down to write a few letters and be really happy with the results. Most of you who know me well know that I'm often at my most charismatic when I'm ranting about something. I'm a natural born ranter, like Rick Mercer, only less educated and WAY less political. I'm cuter then he is though.

Ok, enough yammering, its time for the List of Gratitude. I came home to THREE letters in the mailbox today, OH WHAT A FEELING! I love you guys.

More great letters from Wendy, and she included a schedule of Olympic events in with one of the letters, which made the envelope MASSIVE and made me think she had written me a novel. My writin' hand hurt just thinking about writing her back, I was a little relieved to see this was not the case.

Sharli had promised to write me back when she signed up, and she made good on her promise! Shared some of her favorite Christmas memories with me. I can't believe you knew what that weird thing with the candles and the propellers was!

Got a great letter from Stephanie, an awesome stream of consciousness kind of letter. Those are great to read, really put you inside someone's head and let you have a look around.

Don, who I keep having to remind myself not to call Mr. Delong, since he hasn't been my Socials 11 teacher for nearly fifteen years now, sent me two awesome letters; I think he should be a writer. I think you should call your first book of short stories: Songs from the basement.

Christine sent me a fabulous letter on stationary to die for, bunnies AND little toadstools with a bit of an Asian theme... It doesn't get any cuter than that. She works at the library, so we've been recommending books to each other, she knows her stuff!

AND, as I mentioned, I just came home from a wet and mushy walk in the forest to find THREE letters in my mailbox, from Sandra, Lysa, and Krystal, that I haven't even had time to read yet, so thank you ladies, and thanks to everyone! I better go play with the bunnies now, or they're going to be pissed!

Good night all!

xo
cb

80

I've fallen a little behind, I had to put homework ahead of letter writing for a few days, so I'll be writing like mad this weekend! I wanted to say thank you to everyone again, and a big thank you to those who have sent ME some stuff, it DOES feel great to find real mail in the box, doesn't it!

Lee sent me a great postcard and an awesome anecdote about restaurants in Germany on lovely stationary, I'm so jealous!

James and Stacey sent me a letter with some words of encouragement, thanks guys! Its actually 500 letters in 100 days, not 100 letters. 100 would have been too... sane.

James and Stacey's mom Wendy, who is officially our "landlord" but who is really more like family, heard about my little project and just went ahead and sent me a letter, what a great surprise!

Nikki made me a wicked postcard, got it on my way to class, so I took it to poetry class and passed it around, people were so jealous!

My dad Howard has written me a couple of letters, what a guy!

And I've also received a lot of really nice feedback, so thanks for that.

So last week I took a break from writing actual words and made some collages, I mistakenly thought I could catch up a bit that way, but it actually takes quite a bit longer to make a collage then to write a letter, even with my MAD COLLAGE SKILZ. I had so much fun making them though, so I made about 15, they will go out this weekend, as I have to buy bigger envelopes for them. I also sent out a lot of poems by some of my fave poets, but I'll be back to writing real letters this weekend I think. Maybe a few more collages.

xo
cb

50

Just hit 50 letters! Well 49.5 actually, my writing hand hurts too much, so I'll have to write 5.5 tomorrow. I think I'm going to make a few collage letters for the next few days, this project won't really be pretentious enough without a collage or two. And it will give my fingers a chance to rest.

Many thanks to those who have sent ME some mail, Lee sent a wicked San Fransisco postcard (Thanks Lee!) And my Dad wrote me a huge letter that I haven't been able to read yet because I've been so damn busy writing. (Thanks Dad!) I know I've been asking a lot of questions in some of your letters, obviously you don't have to respond, but it would be awesome it you did! I think I'm going to allow email responses, if you'd like to drop me a note but getting to the damn mailbox just doesn't work for you. So keep that in mind.

Thanks everyone! This has already taught me a lot about the writing process, I'll write more about that later.

xo
cb

Its on.

Saturday January 16. I wrote all five letters before 8 am. Its on.

xo
cb