Letter #85 - Travis

I LOVE the name Travis.  In fact, if I have a son someday, it's pretty high up on my list of potential names.  I have a cousin named Travis, and a good friend of the family named Travis.  Today's letter went to the latter.

What's funny is I hit the period before the "r" and so a second ago that last sentence read "latte." it's funny because Travis is a manager at Starbucks.  Ok so it's funny to me.

Moving on.

My father spent the majority of my life working as full time clergy for our church.  Full time clergy in our church go by the title of "Appointee".  As a result, I am what is dubbed an Appointee Kid.  This life is as enriching as it can be frustrating.  The blessings I've had from being an Appointee Kid (AK) include having lived all over the world, having met hundreds of interesting and wonderful people, having traveled the world and learned all kinds of cool cultures, and having created bonds with other Appointee Kids.  Travis is also an AK.  He's older than me, so we didn't grow up attending the same camps or church functions together, but our parents worked together and were very good friends (his father performed my wedding last year).  As a result, Trav and I share a bond that is unique and very meaningful to me.  While we've had our own ups and downs with that life, we can understand each other on a different level, even though we may not be BFFs.  We also share an interesting take on church life and spirituality because of our upbringings being so close to the church.  Most people would assume this means we are either goody two shoes, or complete rebels, but mostly we fall somewhere in the middle... with deep senses of personal spirituality and a deep appreciation for the culture and community of our church while still finding ourselves somewhat skeptical and frustrated with the politics and challenges that come with running any organisation.  Appointee Kids tend to see a different side of the church than most people.  We see the good, but we also see the dirty underbelly.  We have to learn to maintain a delicate balance so that we can operate within the community of the church, but still separate the business and frustration from our spiritual selves so we can try and avoid becoming complete cynics.  Most of us are reasonably successful at walking this line, and I think almost all of us waver from time to time on one side or the other of the line.

That's why maintaining our AK bonds are important, because we help support each other during the frustrating and wavering times.  Travis and I will always have a special bond, and my letter to him was to reach out and remind him of that.  Also to thank him for making time for my husband and I when we were in his neck of the woods a few weeks back.  It was great to see him for awhile and to get to spend some time catching up and just shooting the breeze (and eating Mexican food lol)

Travis, you rock buddy.  I love ya!

Letter #84 - Laura

This project takes my mind on interesting turns.  I will occasionally make myself a little list of the next 5-10 letters I want to write, and I almost never end up writing exactly those letters to exactly those people in exactly that order.  In fact, I often end up writing letters to completely different people... Laura is one such letter.

I don't know Laura very well.  We attended some of the same church camps, but her brother is the one who is a huge part of my life.  Laura lives in another state, she's married and has 3 kids, she shows up regularly in my Facebook news feed, and yet we don't know much else about each other, and we don't converse much other than the occasional Facebook comment.  We do, however, share a need for saving as much money as we can.  I had commented at some point about coupons, and she remarked that she collects baby related coupons from wherever she can get them.  I don't have any babies yet, so when I go through my coupons I try to keep my eyes open for ones she may be able to use.  I don't always remember her, but this week I did, and so along with the coupons I stuck in the mail for her I also attempted to write a letter that said a little more than "here ya go".  I don't know if Laura and I will ever establish a relationship or friendship beyond where we are now, and that's ok either way, but it was a good exercise for me to write a letter to someone I know just a little.  I hope the coupons help her out, and I hope my letter makes her feel good, even if it's just for a bit that day.  She seems like a nice girl, and she deserves to have a reminder that someone is thinking of her now and then :o)

Letter #83 - Ginger

I have lived with a lot of people.  Mostly because the last few years of undergrad I was living in a house that was home to 12 students... many of which were different each year I was there.  Ginger was one of my roommates at the house and I absolutely loved her.  Ginger is everything a redhead named Ginger should be... fiery, independent, strong willed, passionate, and a touch crazy.  We made great roommates and she got me hooked on the wonderful world of Joss Whedon.  Ginger and I share a dark sense of humour, and she not only brought it out in me, but helped me realise it was ok to let that part of my personality out.  We don't keep in very regular contact, but we have the kind of relationship where that's ok, and when we *are* in touch it's like we still live together almost.

I wanted to write to Ginger because I have been thinking about her a lot this week, and reflecting on the impact she had on my life as a friend and as a roommate.  I wanted to verbalise some things to her that I never had before, and thank her for being so awesome.  She lives in another state now, and we've both gotten married since the last time we saw each other... I really hope at some point we can get together with our spouses and hang out and catch up again, but for now I'll make do with my letter and sending her a whole lot of love.  I hope my letter brings a smile to her face, and let's her reminisce for a bit about our shenanigans together when we were roommies :o)

Letter #82 - Alexei

When I was in college I worked in the cafeteria in my dorm for a couple of years.  My first semester I met Alexei, a Russian grad student who was also working in the caf.  Alexei and I hit it off almost instantly, and truth be told I had a big crush on him until we discovered he was 10 years older than me and that was just too big a gap at that life stage.  Age and crush aside, we had SO MUCH FUN working together, he has an awesome sense of humour and we would just laugh and laugh through our entire shift whenever we worked together.  We would also try to get our breaks together so we could keep the conversation going.

Before I even finished my time at school Alex and I lost touch.  When I moved off campus and he stopped working at the caf we drifted and lost track of each other.  Until last month.  I received a message in my inbox on Facebook asking if I was the same Rachel from Case Hall Caf... I was floored.  Here was my crazy Russian again, I was so excited to hear from him!  Alex is back in Russia now and I was glad to hear he is doing well and updates on his life.  I asked for his address (snail mail) so I could make him a part of this project and today's mail is carrying off a letter to Russia with greetings, updates and photos!

I look forward to hearing back from him, whether online or via snail mail, I hope the letter arrives alright, he said Russian mail service can be pretty shady sometimes.  In any case it's been very cool reconnecting with such a cool old friend :o)

Letter #81 - Granny

When I met my husband I was so excited to also meet his grandparents.  I lost both of my grandfathers by age 10, and one of my grandmothers when I was in college.  I never really lived very close to any of them for long so I always felt as if I got a little gypped when it came to having a relationship with my grandparents like some people do.  My husband had those relationships and when I met him he still had three living grandparents.  By the time we got married her had lost two of them and is now down to just Granny.

Granny is simply awesome.  She is fiercely independent (slowly less so as hip replacements and knee surgeries slow her down) and has a fantastic sense of humour.  I decided to send her a note because I would like to continue to develop my relationship with her.  She adores her family (4 sons, 3 daughter in laws, a dozen grandkids plus their spouses and a couple of great-grandchildren...!)  I sent her some photos from our wedding, from our honeymoon, and of our kitties, along with well wishes and some updates on things going on in our lives right now.  I actually hesitated before sealing the envelope, thinking I should let my husband add his own stuff too, then decided he really didn't have to and this could be allowed to just be mine.

Letter #80 - Joey

I've mentioned before how I have a number of adopted family members, including quite a few siblings.  Joey is one of my adopted brothers.  When my family lived in the Netherlands, he actually lived with us for a few months and became a part of the family.  Joey is quite simply a force of nature.  His love for life is so incredibly infectious, and he is an incredibly gifted musician.  His vocals and piano playing can move me to tears... in fact when it came to picking music for my wedding last fall there was no question in my mind that Joey had to be a part of it.  My husband had written a song for me, which we chose for me to walk down the aisle to and Joey (along with a couple of our other musician friends) created the most incredible instrumental version of it to play live... it was so amazing!

Recently I have been going through this serious musical nostalgic phase and listening to all kinds of stuff that I listened to as a teenie bopper... Joey was living with us during that time and so I've been thinking of him a lot.  We used to have these awesome singing parties with each other, and he would crash my piano practice sessions and play all the pop songs while I'd sing with him.  I decided it was as good a reason as any to send him some love and so I did.  Just thinking about Joey makes me smile... I've shared so many huge life moments with him, and so many small life moments that add up to huge ones.  He has had a really big influence on my life and how I try to live and how I try to carry myself, and I am so incredibly grateful for that influence and his friendship and love!