OH:

I woke up at 3am sick with a renewed bladder infection, so I spent some time while waiting for the doc to answer my MyChart message with a different Rx, sorting thru the completely not organized card stash to find sympathy card options for a friend whose son just died. After I went back to bed and got up 3 hours later, I chose from among the options, got it written, and got it into the mailbox before pickup. A city mailbox I can open in my jammies without leaving the house-- YES, thank you!

Then I decided to rough-sort the stash. Matching envelopes to cards as I went, it turned out that the vast majority are expensive, beautiful BLANK cards with nature theme fronts for every season-- most of them GARDEN images. With thick, creamy envelopes. Only one envelope in the lot was stuck shut-- they'd been stored with care.

I bagged up all the kinds of cards-- a gallon ziploc of Thank You cards, about half of which are high quality and a few suitable for Greg's use. Two gallon-sized bags of blank note cards. One bag of postcards, some from Ohio tourist spots we will probably visit. A bag of fold/seal notes to use with or without envelopes. Some loose notepaper. Two bags of envelopes without cards, in all sizes. A bag of mixed Season's Greetings. A bag of mixed occasion cards, about half of which are Thinking of You. A bag of chech/cash enclosure cards for kids and mail carriers. A bag of Address Changes.

I'm betting more than half of these disappear as retirement communications. I only wish my handwriting weren't so age-affected that it's so hard to read. I go slow, but the letters tangle up. Guess I'll focus on warm brevity!

In the colors and delicacy of the artwork, you can definitely see the eye and heart of the Master Gardener who gave us these. I'm looking forward to further sorting the envelopes by size, and the blank cards by season. And filing the mixed-occasion ones. And getting stamps to suit.

I'll take a bunch to PA when I go back in December for Last Weeks-- special messages to individuals we've known so long. Then I expect to use a lot of Thank You's in January, here. I can start on the Address Change batch anytime-- and then drop them at the right time.

There's a very nice piece of furniture coming in March, to hold all the overflow in boxes, for a gracious "morning room" habit over tea.

~S~