One of my favorite things to do when I get home from work is to check the mail.

I have ALWAYS loved to get the mail. I think it stems from growing up when we had a P.O. Box. It was a big production to go into town and get the mail. The trip was never just getting the mail; there was a trip to the grocery store for the ever needed gallon of milk and maybe even to the hardware store for some thing that my stepfather needed his business. If I was lucky, there would be a stop at the new McDonald’s for a soda or ice cream on the way home.

There was always something exciting in the mail too. Perhaps a catalogue to look through or some “Try it for free for 30 days” offer that I would drive my mom mad ordering. And there was always the granddaddy of all giveaways: the Publishers Clearing House Giveaway! I must have spent hours looking through the envelope for all of the stickers to put in just the right places. A trip to the post office might mean a check for $10,000,000! But I haven’t sent in an entry to win big for probably 10 years. I guess after taking my stats class, it never seemed like it was worth it anymore. In college and grad school, a stamp was better spent on a letter home and not an entry to something I had a one in ten million chance of winning.

To this day I get excited to go and get the mail, even though I know that there will only be bills at the beginning of the month and a pile of circulars at the end of the month. Husband doesn’t understand my fascination with the mail. He teases me and races me to the mailbox if we happen to get home at the same time. At least “My Friend Lisa” understands my obsession and will indulge me. When we go walking, she lets me check her mail.

When Husband and I were first dating and he lived out on the left coast and I was on the right, I sent him a card. It was a sweet little card and full of tender and romantic gushiness. But weeks went by without him calling and saying “How sweet!!” It was almost two months later when it finally showed up. The cancelled stamp showed that it had somehow been sent to Dubai before making it to his apartment. And I thought that was an interminable delay! But somehow I think Al Gore will be pretty upset with this one:

Eight years to get a letter from the Vice President? Can’t we have someone look into this?[1]

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[1] Yes, I know that the title “Vice President” is for life and even though he isn’t VP now, he still gets to be called that. But personally, I think he has a few more titles that are even more impressive than VP. How about “Nobel Prize Winner” or “Academy Award Winning”? Just my opinion.