Why I LOVE the P.O.

Not surprisingly, about a week after I ran out of mailing labels, I ran out of stamps.

So on this warm, sunny Friday afternoon, I go into my local post office. The line is just four deep, and there are three workers on duty. I am called up within a minute or less by a guy about my age. He has slicked back hair and an air of Vinnie Barbarino about him.

"What can I do for you today?"

"Could I get a roll of --"

"-- We don't have rolls --"

"-- postcard stamps?"

Vinnie smiles broadly. "Oh, sorry! Yes, that we have! How many you want? There's a hundred in a roll, you know."

"Just one."

Vinnie pops a roll onto the counter and says, "Anything else?"

"Yeah. Could I see all the different first class stamps you have?"

At this, I expect some balking, or at least a little drop in Vinnie's enthusiasm.

But no! "Sure!" he says. He slides open a big draw with a bang and starts pulling out sheets of colorful postage. "We got bicycles, we got O. Henry. He's like, like a literary guy... we got cherry blossoms" -- Vinnie looks at me -- "You like cherry blossoms?"

I say, "Yeah, yeah, I like cherry blossoms. I'll take those and the O. Henry and the bicycles. What else you got?"

"We got baseball --"

"--Definitely no baseball for me --"

"--We got the Disney cars --"

"I've had those already, maybe this is enough?"

"We got Miles Davis and Edith Piaf --"

"WHAT?" I exclaim.

Vinnie grins and hands me the Miles and Edith without a word.

Sixty-eight dollars later, I am ready to correspond again.

100th Anniversary!

To call it an "anniversary" is misleading in every possible way, but "100th Postcard Sent!" didn't have quite the right punch.

Just the latest batch of postcards.

It's true! I've sent my hundredth postcard. I've run out of 29-cent+2-cent+1-cent stamps! I can now admit that I had my doubts when I started last January as to how long I'd stick with it.  A hundred stamps just felt daunting. How long it would take me to send 100 postcards? All year? Two years? Half a year? How many times would the Post Office raise the rates before I ran out?

Well, it feels like an accomplishment of some kind to have used them up in 209 days. It makes me smile to think of those hundred postcards out there, sitting on my friends' and relatives'  desks or taped to their refrigerators (or lining their recycle bins).

Pretty little bag o' stamps.

And then there's this! I started something at New Year's and kept at it for more than a week - that alone might be a first.

But is it over? Oh no, it's only just begun. I've restocked my postcard supply at grocery stores and airports and gift shops from South Carolina to Alaska. I went into my local post office and purchased several sheets of the fabulous 32-cent Aloha stamps, along with 50 Forever stamps for those fat long letters I sometimes write. In fact, I bought so many different kinds of stamps they had to put them in a sack for me - and it was as pretty as the stamps are.

Let's see how long it takes me to get to 200 postcards, shall we?