Old Correspondence

A long while ago, Timothy and I stored a bunch of boxes at his parent's house. Then we retrieved all the boxes we could find and I assumed all the stuff that we couldn't find was lost forever.

Then Timothy's parents decided to clean out their basement a few weeks ago and voila--our missing stuff. Good stuff. Like the poodle skirt Mom made me when I was in Bye, Bye, Birdie. And the slip and pantaloons Mom made me for when I was in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. And all the fairly sad artwork I did in my tenth grade art class. Hey, it might stink but it is the best artwork I'll ever produce.

One of the boxes also contained my shoebox full of correspondence. There were no letters from Joe. I must have edited the box after I got married. I found a love letter from some bimbo to Timothy in one of his boxes. I threw it away.

Back to the point.

Here are some of my favorite things from my correspondence box.

From Mom to me right before I left for BYU and she moved to NoDak (we were both already having severe separation anxiety): ". . . I'm so glad you are my daughter and I love you so very much. I enjoy our visiting and our singing and our being together. I'm going to miss you so much when you go off to BYU!! . . . I'm sorry for the crisis you are going through right now . . .."

I love that she called my jaw problems/surgery a crisis. I mean, it was a crisis for me because I sang. That's what I did. And then I couldn't. So, yeah, crisis. But still, it is funny to me that she called it that. And you know what, even thinking about how homesick I was for my mom when I went to BYU still makes me feel all sick and teary-eyed. We were tight. And that first semester was very lonely.

A card from Megan: "Happy Birthday. The best thing about being related to you is . . . it makes me seem so normal!" Uh, thanks Megs. Then in the card it said, "I hope you have a wonderful birthday and that you get all you want (except your english teacher)." I totally forgot I had a crush on my English teacher my first semester at BYU. He was a charming master's student who had a girlfriend.

One from my dad: "Do you realize what a sexist story little red riding hood is? In today's world no female, even a small one with a red hood would require a burley wood cutter to slay a wolf for her. In fact that would likely be a case for sexual harrassment. Any little girl worth her red hood would whip out a completely illegal semi-automatic instrument of death and reduce the wolf to a lifeless corpse ridden with holes and remorse. The only question left would be whether or not the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, or that tree-hugging group that reintroduced the wolf to Yellowstone forest in the first place, would be successful in their attempt to have LRRH incarcerated and the wolf brougth back to life through genetic cloning. Oc course there is no research money available for cloning as Slick Willy has pulled the plug on those funds--rumour has it that he is afraid that some smart alec would clone Hillary. Dad."

Just think about getting those kinds of emails in your inbox.

This is from my little Louisa Lou aka Lindsay. "Thank you so much for the book! I loved it! Have you ever read it? Thanks so much for sending it and for brightening my day up! I love you and miss you sooo much! I can't wait to see you at Kayli's wedding! Oh! Guess what!?!? I have not chewed my nails for five whole days!! I want them to be pretty for Kayli's wedding! Andrea! Guess what?!?! I'm getting my ears pierced today! I'm so excited! Oh, Ands, I saw this picture of a little girl (Norman Rockwell) and she had little red curly hair, and she was so adorable! I thought that that is exactly what Andrea's kids are going to look like! I would have sent it to you but it wasn't my magazine! Well, thanks again for the book! I really appreciate it! I love you so much! Love, Lindsay."

Getting her ears pierced means she was twelve when she wrote that , and since Kayli was getting married, I was 22. I love how many exclamation points there are in the letter. I also love that Lindsay wrote me frequently once I moved out and she usually signed her letters, "Love your ROOMIE, Louisa Lou." Or something to that effect. She was my girl. I still can't believe she's married.

From my dad: "Wouldn't it be nice if someone would send you an e-mail? Well, I would but I'm just too busy so you'll have to look to someone else to fulfill your dependency needs. I have places to go and people to see and I will be on my way as soon as I remember where and who they are. DAD." Typical.

From Kami: "HEH HEH, I GOT TO MAKE THIS SHORT BECAUSE Kayli took up a whole hour writing that short little letter! I still have three hours to wait but I have to find some stuff on the internet and since I've never used it before it could take up some time . . . As Kayli told you, we burnt a hole through the garbage can lid. 54 days till Christmas!!!!!!!!!! . . . I love you. But even though I love you so much the National Geographic net site is calling to me saying, come come come see interesting and cool things. So I really must go." Hilarious in her constancy.

A card from my roommate April: "My social life? Dull? Let's just say the only time I need to shave my legs is before I step on a scale." Then she wrote, "Okay this card attacked me screaming your name." Hmm. That was the semester after Timothy and I broke up and the semester that I went to school at 6:00 am and got home at 10:30 pm every day. I got a 4.0 though.

The famous pig-trough letter from my Grandpa John: "Too bad you'll have to dance in the pig trough, but that's what you get for being Big Red. . . PS You could take your blonde spinster sister for that ice cream." Apparently, if your younger sister gets married before you, you have to dance in a pig trough or you won't get married. "Big" Red referred to my being older than "Little Red" (Kayli). The spinster blonde sister was, of course, Kami. We both ended up getting married and I never danced in a pig trough. I'm pretty sure Kami did though.

A card from my sister friend Polly: "You know how sometimes when you're lying in bed at night and it's so hot that you take one leg and put it outside the covers? Well, I'd like to be there when you do that because I can never get enough of your legs. I mean it's to the point that if you were, say, in a movie, you would be listed in the credits as something like, 'Person Number One with Ridiculously Fine Legs.' Your feet and and hip bones are ever so lucky." Inside the card she wrote, "I saw this card and thought of you immediately! Who else has such stunning legs (besides me of course)." Makes me think of sitting on the couch together in our usual state of undress talking about the neighbor boys. Good days.

And I'll end with my dad. Because we all know he's weird. "Yo little one!! It is a day is it not! You will be glad to hear that after due consideration I have decided to retain our father-daughter relationship rather than denounce it to make myself more acceptable to a world that is unable to understand or accept your individual giftedness and idiosyncrosies. However, you must make every effort to lavish me with financial renumeration as reimbursement for lost revenues that I have experienced due to that noble--and questionable--decision. . . . Oh well, do not let the fact that your rabble rousing has ruined my life put a damper on your day!! Enjoy."