Since e-mail is such a pain . . .

Okay, so maybe e-mail really isn't a pain but actually one of the best, most convenient inventions ever. Think what life was like before the advent of e-mail. Wow.

I think since e-mail is such an easy way to keep in touch with friends, we tend to blow it off. Even though an e-mail can contain as much information as a real letter, it doesn't seem like it's a real letter. It's instant correspondence. Click. E-mail sent. Because e-mail is such a fast way to communicate, it seems less formal and less special. Plus, so many of us use it every day at work for hours, that coming home to write to friends just doesn't seem like fun. Even though it's so easy.

I used to be a frequent letter writer (Yes, Virginia, there were things called letters written with a pen on paper, mailed in an envelope with a stamp), but e-mail changed all that. I have kept every letter I've received from one particular friend, and I have a record of her summer vacations, boyfriends, classes, family news, and other major events leading up to about college. That's where an e-mail address started being standard issue along with dorm keys and parking passes. I have printed out and saved some more eloquent, letter-like e-mails from friends, but it just isn't the same. Too often, e-mails from friends just sit in my in-box after I've read them. It's all too tempting to hit the delete key when the "account size over allotment, delete files" message box pops up. I never delete them because it feels like I'd be deleting a little bit of history. If I delete this e-mail, who would ever know what she got for Christmas in 1999? Would she remember?

E-mails are not permanent. They can be if one prints them out, folds, ties with a ribbon and tucks away. But a stack of e-mails is all one neat size on boring, white paper without any anxiously opened multi-colored envelopes with gradually increasing in cost postage stamps affixed. I can't see how my friend's penmanship has evolved over the years in an e-mail. I might be able to tell if her typing skills have improved, but that's about it.

So why did I start a blog? Simple - I'm lazy. I love real letters and hearing from friends in any form (phone, e-mail, letter) but I've turned into a horrible correspondent. (Tangent: I enjoy going into stationary stores and looking at all the beautiful, varied, blank stationary. I never buy any of it because I know I won't use it. It's like a blind person looking at the DVD section. Pointless. I have taken my stockpile of stationary and notecards to work because that's where I find myself writing the most handwritten notes. I write notes to authors, illustrators, librarians, friends. So if any of you have given me stationary in recent years, it might have been used to write an author a congratulatory note after winning an award, or enclosed with a set of books sent as a thank you. Tangent over.) I so frequently get e-mails with the phrase, "hey, long time, no write" or "it's been too long since I've written" that I decided I needed a better way of keeping in touch with friends. I figured a blog is a step up from a mass e-mail. Of course, this will keep all of you up to date on my world, but you'll still have to write me. Ug. Get a blog of your own - I'm pretty good at reading things. Ha ha. I check in with several blogs each week just to see what's new. A blog isn't permanent either, but it will do for now.

Please post a comment if you feel inclined and check back often. If you post anonymously, be sure to include your name in your post otherwise I won't know who sent it. Anonymous means anonymous, duh. I'll do my best to keep somewhat regular posts and add photos & links.