Making up for the lost/last year.

A highlight of summers in London was buying blue and red aerogrammes and sending long letters in cramped handwriting back to friends in the States. One had only a limited amount of space for writing, so it was vital to make every word count. (I didn't know about cross-writing then, but I certainly would have tried it if I had.)

I still have a nostalgic attraction to airmail patterns on stationery, but I almost never buy paper because, sadly, I don't write too many letters anymore. Maybe most people don't have the patience now, but I really love toting incomplete letters around with me and adding to them throughout the week. And finding a new email in my inbox, while still exciting, just can't compare to sorting through the mail and finding a letter I've anticipated for ages.

So when I saw these notebooks at UO a few weeks ago, I bought them immediately. Usually I don't spend money on notebooks because the only ones worth buying always seem too exquisite to risk spoiling with writing. But these were cheap, and I bought two of them so that I wouldn't have to worry about possibly ruining one. While it's a little silly to have the "par avion" on the front there (one isn't, after all, mailing the notebook as is), who really cares? It reminds me of all those thrilling summer letters.

I neglected to record almost anything I did last year (except, of course, in emails), and so now I'm catching up. I finally finished reading the last of Dickens's novels, and that's worth writing down, isn't it? As I was trying to remember the books I read in the first half of 2009, a visitor wandered by. I tapped on the glass a few times, and he finally consented to turn around.

And of course one has to have an afternoon treat. Houston has a dismal cupcake scene (and where does one get really fine cake?), but these red velvet cupcakes from Starbucks are decent.

I know it has a cult following, but red velvet cake must be one of the most disappointing cakes of all time. You can never go wrong with cream cheese icing (even the worst bakeries generally seem to get it right), but the cake itself just doesn't have enough flavor for me. Anyway, although I wouldn't go out of my way to have one of these cupcakes, I can't say that I didn't enjoy it just a little. Especially on such a cheerful plate.