Handwritten Letters

Random question:  Are handwritten letters a thing of the past?

I am pretty sure they are.  Or if they happen, it's cause they are forced.  Perhaps someone will read this blog post, then send me a handwritten letter for this reason.  Perhaps a man will send one to a woman as a gesture of romance, if you will. However, do these normally happen at all any more?  I feel like they are much more meaningful to their simpler, more environmental counterparts.  Not just from a romantic standpoint - there is something special and meaningful about receiving nice paper in the mail from someone who cares - right now the only ones who care about me in such a way are my credit card companies and my cable provider.  I love email but I fear it has phased out the old fashioned note on stationery.

Anyhow.  I suppose cards will always live on - e-cards don't have the same effect and haven't successfully phased them out.   However, I fear snail mail is getting phased out for good.  Am I right?  Do handwritten letters still exist?   Will they in the future, or will it be something future generations are confused by - like landline phones or perms?

Anyhow.  There is another fine selling point to the good old-fashioned handwritten note when one has something personal to say - it's not so simple to just hit 'forward'.

Overheard in the Office

"I'm about to send you an email."

I hear this about 8 times a day.  Not always directed at me - I overhear it constantly in others' conversations as well.  

Not that there's anything wrong with it.  But is this REALLY something that requires a heads up?   Ooh, thanks, now I'll go mentally prepare to click read!  Is there a particular reason we're giving people a heads up before we email them?  Is a warning necessary?

Unrequited Love?

This picture is associated with the Charlie Brown quote 'Nothing spoils the taste of peanut butter quite like unrequited love'.

All this talk about songs on my i-pod has gotten me thinking. Anon nicely brought up the song "As I Lay Me Down" by Sophie B. Hawkins, which reminds me of my 7th grade crush. sigh. j/k. Anyhow.

Like everyone else in the world, I have experience with unrequited love. (Being that I had feelings for someone who didn't have them back.) One experience happened in college. Probably most of my friends/blog readers know/remember said experience for me. Actually, let's call this an unrequited crush.

I met him freshman year of college - we had a class together and talked briefly a couple times. He seemed like a genuinely nice person with good morals. I did some research and found out he had a serious girlfriend. I will not mention his name for the sake of protecting the innocent.

Anyhow. Long story short, he and I ran into each other a couple of times throughout college, but either I was dating someone, or he was, or the conversation was very brief and didn't allow for going anywhere personal. Well, senior year of college, I was single the entire time and started thinking about him quite a bit. About a week prior to graduation (I graduated in December of 2004, so most of the people I started college with had an extra semester left), I wrote him an email (I was just slightly ahead of my time in the dating world - back in 2004 this wasn't necessarily as common a way to ask someone out as it is now).

It went something like this:

Hi XXXX:

I don't know if you remember me - we had XXX class together freshman year and we ran into each other at XXX recently. This is kind of random, but I kind of have had a crush on you for a while and I was wondering if you were possibly interested in getting together some time. I'm graduating in two weeks so I thought I'd just get in touch and put it out there. Ok, take care!

He responded:

Hi Jaime (he spelled my name correctly!):

I definitely remember you - I enjoyed taking that class with you and it is good to hear from you. I actually have had a girlfriend for a little over a year, so I don't think it would be best for us to hang out. Congrats and good luck with graduating.

(Editor's sidenote: I do not remember either email, exactly, because, believe it or not, I didn't print it or save it, so once my U of I email account was disabled, it was lost in cyberspace. Tear.)

Sigh. The one that got away. J/k. I believe he is currently married and living in some other part of the country. Anyhow.

When I think back to him and this incident, I actually have fond memories of it - which makes me think this wasn't actually unrequited love, but rather, an unrequited crush, because, well, who remembers unrequited love fondly? At the time, I thought I felt more strongly toward him than I did. I knew he was a nice decent guy, but I didn't know him as well as I assumed to and never really had a personal connection/friendship to him (maybe this was the halo effect or something) - so it really was much more of a crush than anything.

Anyhow. Although I don't really think of this person any more (which might be hard for those who knew me back in college to believe), I don't remember him for the fact that he didn't want me in the same way I wanted him but I do remember him for being a nice decent person who was respectful to my (and other people's) feelings. That's what I remember about him and that's what I liked about him.

I do periodically wonder what he thought, getting an email completely out of the blue from a girl he hardly knew and hadn't seen or talked to in quite a while. When I think of this, it makes me think of the fact that there is probably someone completely random and unexpected out there thinking of all of us.

I have had other experiences with unrequited love - but those are stories for another day.

At This Point, Everyone Probably HATES These Posts

Subject Line:  Overcoming Anxiety in Stressful Times

Hello,

 

Today's economy has resulted in higher levels of stress and uncertainty for more people than ever before. Many are anxious about what the future holds and are not sure what steps to take.

 

In Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard detailed the full mechanics of what anxiety is composed of and this is something everyone should know in order to achieve peace of mind in troubled times. It has everything to do with the ability to make decisions and increasing your certainty in life.

 

Please join us for an introductory lecture entitled "Certainty and Decision" based on the book "Handbook for Preclears" by L. Ron Hubbard.

 

This lecture will be held on Saturday the 17^th of January at 1:00 pm. Please confirm your attendance by replying to this email or calling 847-824-62**.

Take comfort in knowing that as you are sick of Dianetics posts, I am sick of receiving e-mails from them.