Thank Ye Kindly!

What I'm Listening To: Wasted Years by Damone

Whatta week! Lots going on...teeth to whiten...songs to make up...elastic-waisted pants to buy....cheesecakes to order....it was endless! And to top it all off I ended this fantastic week with a haunted Walker (ha!), a delicious baby shower (you can thank Simma's cheesecake for that!) and a laughfest over drinks! All in all it was a great week!

There was one eye-opener, though. So the guest of honor at the baby shower said that since it was such a small gathering, and everyone's pretty casual and modern, that she wasn't going to send us thank you notes for our gifts. Okay, I won't lie, I was kinda disappointed. But it was totally cool. I'm an old fogey, and it's just a new generation, I know and I understand that. I have to get with the times.

As a kid we were forced to write them, so it was a pain back then, but now? Now I luuuuuuurve writing thank you notes! I luuuuurve buying cute stationary! I luuuurve opening a fresh pen and contemplating what's the best way to say things like "loved the pot roast, hated your new rug", but in a nice way, you know? I usually write them after a nice dinner out or receiving a lovely gift. It's so genteel and sedate, a throwback to a slower time, a time when people left their calling card instead of leaving a voice mail, texts were found in the Bible and the only tweets people heard were those coming from our feathered forest friends.

So since sometimes I'd rather hear a Benny Goodman tune than something by Benny Benassi and I wouldn't turn down a quick time travel junket to England between the wars, my vintage self is holding on to this sweet tradition for dear life! I mean, when we first moved into Casa Reagan, the second thing I did (after sage smudging the place for ghosts...seriously!!) was run down to Paperworks on Downer Avenue to buy my very own set of personalized stationary. For me, sighing over san serif fonts, caressing umpteen different paper weights and lingering over envelope linings was almost better than clothes shopping. I spent like two hours in there! Over PAPER, for cripes sake!

And Paperworks has got your number when it comes to selling luxurious stationary, so watch out! I don't know if you've ever been to Paperworks, but it's this little stationary store that sells all this, uh, stationary and cards and stickers. Oh, I can-NOT forget to mention the stickers. Stickers were little suburban girl crack back in the 80s. We titans of the tea set collected them, traded them, and showed off your stickerbook to all your other lady friends. They were so important that some girls even stole them! (Yeah, uh, not me...it was that Mandy down the street, the lil bitch.) The stickers came on these rolls that were mounted to the pegboard wall in the corner of the store. We used to spend like hours in there deciding which ones to buy. So I'm very familiar with this East Side landmark. (Bring back the Coffee Trader!! Who's with me?)

But back to my stationary purchase. But the best part of my order was when I'm telling the saleslady my new home's address. OMG, you should have seen her snooty eyebrow shoot up when I was all, "uh, yeah, that's S. 77th Street. Uh-huh, yes, that's WEST ALLIS." Eyebrow arch, snotty look ratchets up a notch. And I'm all like, "Do you need me to spell West Allis for you?" I almost snorted a laugh right in her face, it was hilarious. Finally, snotty bitch writes up my order and tells me to come back in a few weeks. Fun!

So maybe I walked out of there a lot lighter in the wallet but I was a whole lot happier than when I had walked in. And two weeks later I was the proud owner of 100 dove grey Crane's notecards embossed with my new married name in a lovely italicized font, with matching dove grey envelopes lined with a demure arts and crafts background print. OMG, super classy, and this is for me, the girl who buys Star magazine at the grocery store every week and reads it cover to cover over lunch. The girl who thinks nothing tastes better than a mini bottle of Miller Lite when you're drinking it on your own front stoop watching your neighbor get tasered for resisting arrest. That's me, the same girl who just luuuurves writing a sweet thank you card!

All I have to say is, I can't wait for the next dinner party, cocktail gathering, birthday celebration or even a funeral that I get invited to just so I can whip out my high-falutin' thank you cards and write you a touching note of gratitude. Yay! And maybe it's a new millenium, and we're all so busy twittering, texting and facebooking that we forgot all about the personal touch, but some of us are still old-fashioned softies. So if you want to make this old broad grin, send me a heartfelt handwritten thank you card! I'll probably write you a thank you card back for doing it, no kidding!

Thank you! :)