Mail Call

Things are going pretty well here in Fuerzaland. Time is flying and life is good! Nothing super jazzy to report but next week I will be in Miami (for work) and Bogota (for pleasure) so expect to see some adventure posts creeping back.

I came home tonight quite haggard from a grueling 12-hour workday+Phone Booth time with Katie and Laura (reunited and it feels so good!) to find TWO treasures awaiting me in my mail file:

The first, a standard corporate FedEx envelope from Barclay's Bank (Tran! Delightfully TYPICAL). Inside: Photos from the long lost disposable camera from our Spring Break 2005 trip to Amsterdam! Taken before the digital era - well not really - these shots are the only vestiges of our gnarly week in the Netherlands back when I had a fauxhawk. Highlights of this trip include binging and purging at pretty much every flenje house in the city; getting fucked up then boarding a two 2-hr train to Rotterdam only to realize we pretty much had no money for the remaining five days of the trip; and partying with a band who pedaled us from gig to gig on the backs of their bikes while we held their instruments (I got stuck with the f-ing keyboard). There was also the proud moment when I couldn't get into our shitty hotel room because Sasha's visitor had exceeded maximum occupancy of two so I had to wait in the gutter until they were finished only to find my friend wearing my kimono passed out on the dirty mattress with no sheets.

Tran's package also included a bag filled with chocolate ears and toes. How well my friend knows my taste!


drugs and cartography (this map incidentally found residence on Ted's wall for many months)


with the band; the bed when it still had sheets


where is my St. David's t-shirt???


The second, an artfully hand painted envelope from Ted. WHETTOS!!! I have been on the receiving end of Ted's frequent small-batch comics for over a year. It has been a read joy following the mis/adventures in Tetonia and beyond. When he moved back East from Idaho recently I'd assumed my days of mini mail treasures were finished. It looks like the project is over for now but not without a last hurrah: twenty-four juicy travel journals plus two long-ass letters were enclosed in the package documenting his cross-country journey (by way of SF). This is enough material for me to get my Excellent Adventures fix for at least some time. I eagerly await the next installment in whatever capacity (screen prints?!).

Now I am going to curl up in bed and read them.