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A letter I sent my mom a long time ago
Oct. 25th, 1988 12:37 amI was cleaning my desk today (9 September 2017), and found a dot matrix printed piece of paper (with the perforated edges and holes for going through the printer still intact) in a stack of old filing that I had been meaning to go through for a while now. I am not certain how it got into this pile, but I have a vague memory of mom giving me some old letters I had sent her years ago. This was the only one in that stack, but it amused me to read it, so I am re-typing it here, with the date of entry edited to show the date that the original letter had been written. I will do my best to leave spelling and punctuation as it was in the original, though it will be hard, I keep wanting to add commas, and capital letters, though there is only the one major misspelling.
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"Family,
Well it is lucky I got early today as the mailman brought my christmas presents. Two full months early you know how to be cruel. The first thing I did was to rip off the customs tags without reading them so that I will be surprised when the time comes. The mailman also had my last letter to you which didn't have enough postage. This is why it took so long to get there.
I hope that these paint brushes are what Amber needs. I went into Blaine's Paint shop and told the lady there what you wanted and she said "is she painting water-color or oil?". Of course I didn't know, so she went and got three brushes and boxed them up for mailing for me saying that these were probably the brushes you wanted.
The other stuff I've included are things I found at the house that I thought would be fun to send. Just to be obnoxious.
I have made my first safe trip to Homer, the curse must be broken. Last Friday at around 19:30 my friend Carrie, from mountaineering class, asked me if I wanted to go to Homer with her. You know me, I said sure, then asked why. It turns out that her folks live in Home and had been talking about bringing Carrie's snowtires up to her, but didn't know when they would find the time. So we called down and told her brother that we would be there around 0:00 to 1:00. Her folks were out when we called, but her brother promised to let them know. Needless to say he forgot. We got in at 0:30 and everyone was asleep. Her brother woke up to let us in and told us that he forgot to tell his folks we were coming, then went straight back to bed. Boy was I discusted, as I told Carrie, I was raised that if uninvited unexpected guests arrive in the middle of the night you get up and entertain them, not go to sleep! Carrie didn't want to wake anyone so we pulled out the couch bed and crashed in the living room. The next morning her mom got a early phone call and, not wanting to wake her husband, took the call in the kitchen. She didn't bother to turn on the light so when I woke to the sound of her voice I fell right back to sleep. She is from Minnesota and her accent is familiar enough that her voice soothed me to sleep. Around 08:30 their exchange student, Phillipe, came up for breakfast as he had a swim meet to attend. Just before he got up Carrie got up to go to the bathroom. He turned on the light, and for the first time Sharon, Carrie's mom notices that there is someone sleeping in her living room. Phillipe tells her that it is Carrie, but she realizes that it can't be, the hair isn't red. So she comes over and lifts the blanket to see who it is whereupon I open my eyes and say "Hi, I'm, Reia.". After a few moments for it all to sink in she notices that the bathroom door is closed and asks if Carrie is in there. I say yes and tell her that Todd forgot to pass on the message. So she went back to her phone call. When she was done she told Carrie that we should have waken her when we got in, she would have fed us on the spot. I couldn't resist telling Carrie !I told you so" about people entertaining unexpected guests in the middle of the night.
Carrie's dad changed the oil and put on the snow tires, then we took a walk on the beach before returning to anchorage. We were back in time to change for an SCA dance demo."
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The letter ends there, though there must have been another page at one time, since there is no signature salutation at the bottom, though I really don't remember writing this, so I have no idea what else it might have said. Now I wonder what else I put into that package, and why it was obnoxious.
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"Family,
Well it is lucky I got early today as the mailman brought my christmas presents. Two full months early you know how to be cruel. The first thing I did was to rip off the customs tags without reading them so that I will be surprised when the time comes. The mailman also had my last letter to you which didn't have enough postage. This is why it took so long to get there.
I hope that these paint brushes are what Amber needs. I went into Blaine's Paint shop and told the lady there what you wanted and she said "is she painting water-color or oil?". Of course I didn't know, so she went and got three brushes and boxed them up for mailing for me saying that these were probably the brushes you wanted.
The other stuff I've included are things I found at the house that I thought would be fun to send. Just to be obnoxious.
I have made my first safe trip to Homer, the curse must be broken. Last Friday at around 19:30 my friend Carrie, from mountaineering class, asked me if I wanted to go to Homer with her. You know me, I said sure, then asked why. It turns out that her folks live in Home and had been talking about bringing Carrie's snowtires up to her, but didn't know when they would find the time. So we called down and told her brother that we would be there around 0:00 to 1:00. Her folks were out when we called, but her brother promised to let them know. Needless to say he forgot. We got in at 0:30 and everyone was asleep. Her brother woke up to let us in and told us that he forgot to tell his folks we were coming, then went straight back to bed. Boy was I discusted, as I told Carrie, I was raised that if uninvited unexpected guests arrive in the middle of the night you get up and entertain them, not go to sleep! Carrie didn't want to wake anyone so we pulled out the couch bed and crashed in the living room. The next morning her mom got a early phone call and, not wanting to wake her husband, took the call in the kitchen. She didn't bother to turn on the light so when I woke to the sound of her voice I fell right back to sleep. She is from Minnesota and her accent is familiar enough that her voice soothed me to sleep. Around 08:30 their exchange student, Phillipe, came up for breakfast as he had a swim meet to attend. Just before he got up Carrie got up to go to the bathroom. He turned on the light, and for the first time Sharon, Carrie's mom notices that there is someone sleeping in her living room. Phillipe tells her that it is Carrie, but she realizes that it can't be, the hair isn't red. So she comes over and lifts the blanket to see who it is whereupon I open my eyes and say "Hi, I'm, Reia.". After a few moments for it all to sink in she notices that the bathroom door is closed and asks if Carrie is in there. I say yes and tell her that Todd forgot to pass on the message. So she went back to her phone call. When she was done she told Carrie that we should have waken her when we got in, she would have fed us on the spot. I couldn't resist telling Carrie !I told you so" about people entertaining unexpected guests in the middle of the night.
Carrie's dad changed the oil and put on the snow tires, then we took a walk on the beach before returning to anchorage. We were back in time to change for an SCA dance demo."
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The letter ends there, though there must have been another page at one time, since there is no signature salutation at the bottom, though I really don't remember writing this, so I have no idea what else it might have said. Now I wonder what else I put into that package, and why it was obnoxious.