Sara sent me this cute postcard from the Stay Home Club.
Sara references my mother’s surprise hospital stay and again expresses surprise that it it is July. (As she wrote that, there were only 11 days left in July!)
I also got two of these Idaho Made cards, though only took a picture of one.
Sara reports that she has been resting up from the Boise trip, but has plans to get things done before we see each other later in the month.
That’s right, we managed to plan a trip! Stand by for posts.
I greatly enjoy the text on this postcard from Field Notes.
Ariel comments that she is glad one character is mad at the other; it seems fitting. She (and I) continue to contemplate if we would like this better if our reading journey had not been so stretched out.
Sara also included fun stickers on this postcard mailed from the city of our birth.
She writes that her trip to Boise was a good one, it was good to attend the memorial service she attended.
She notes that this postcard reminds her of old-school Boise River Festival designs. Agreed.
“More dumb song lyrics for you!” Ariel opens. This is in response to my message that I find song lyrics written for novels cringeworthy. Every. Single. Time.
I mostly just skip them.
Sara sends this card from Oregon’s City of Sunshine, aka Klamath Falls.
She was taking a quick trip to Boise, and mentions that they seem to have taken the very scenic route a few times.
Also arriving was this cute cat, which Sara found at Eureka Books.
She wrote the card on July 4 and it was postmarked on July 7. Meanwhile, the Klamath Falls postcard was written on July 10, and made its way to Portland before getting a July 11 Portland, Oregon postmark.
I do miss things being postmarked from the small towns along the way.
Sara expresses surprise that it’s already July!
She congratulates us both on getting through our various June trials.
Ariel reports that she’s increasingly annoyed by Elizabeth. (I was too, at that point.)
She also was pondering how we think we know someone, but someone else knows them differently in ways that highlight our intrinsic isolation.
Friend S. North went to her homeland this summer, and I got this beautiful postcard.
She said her best days were a 15-mile sunny romp around Aberdeen (her birthplace) discovering hidden gems, and a long country walk in Yorkshire to the grave of Sylvia Plath. (For some reason (*cough* Ted Hughes *cough*) SP is buried in Scotland, though Mr. Hughes didn’t bury himself there.
Sara sent this postcard titled “There’s a monster in the kitchen.”
And my, what a monster.
Ariel texted me that I would be getting three weeks of Loved One reaction postcards at once because she missed a week so wrote two, then posted them before she went on vacation, but her house sitter “helpfully” brought in the not-posted cards, so they weren’t sent until she got back, at which time it was time to write another card.
I chuckled at the house sitter’s action. At least we know she didn’t read the postcards she brought in, otherwise she might have realized her mistake.
These three postcards chronicle Ariel’s changing view of Elizabeth. She is “hard to like, but also I keep wanting to read more of her.” Her “relationship to alcohol seems annoying and obsessive,” and “Elizabeth gets more unlikeable.”
She was a hard character to really like.
Another good observation based on Ariel’s experience: I think there is something magical about being with art with another person.
Sara sent this motivational postcard for my month of wondering if I would be unemployed.
She included many fun stickers on the back.
From the future, I can say that things worked out okay in the end, but it took most of the month to get there.
