A Happy Mail day and a Major Screw-Up

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I have a pen pal blog where I record mail that I send and mail that I receive. (I started the blog because I don't have a big enough footprint on the internet these days. LOL.)

For the last several days, I have sent out lots of mail...

...at least 3 pieces, sometimes more, each day, a combination of long letters, short letters and post cards. (Yesterday it took me four hours to write 10 letters to each of the Compassion children, to send along with a little gift for each one.)

But, alas, each day I have to report that I have received no mail that day.

Today I didn't have to report that!

What a windfall! This included 2 letters from my Compassion correspondence child, Fred, in the Philippines (always a very faithful writer). There were three Postcrossing postcards (from Poland, Germany and Spain), a Swap-Bot "getting to know you" letter from Norway, and 3 penpal letters from people I have written to before. Really wonderful things to find when opening the mail box.

I was also pleased to log onto the Compassion web site and find that the photo of my very first Compassion Child, Anjali in India, had been updated. I called Compassion and asked for them to send me a .jpg, which they did. It was really nice to compare it with the first picture of her that I got 3 years ago.

I first chose her because of her chubby face, remembering what it was like to be a fat kid who was never chosen first. But look at the slim, lovely little girl she is growing into. I love it when you see these very serious faces of kids looking for sponsors, and then the happy, confident faces that appear in later photos.

The good mail day almost made up for the big mistake I made earier. I had gone to interview a brilliant actress, Katie Rubin (who also happens to be a good friend of Marta's) about her upcoming one-woman show. It was a fabulous interview. She was quotable throughout and writing the article, I knew, was going to be a piece of cake. But when we finished and I went to turn the recorder off, it was already off. I had missed the entire interview.

If I have to screw up so royally, it was better to do it with Katie than with one of the Lamplighter people. I can call Katie again tomorrow night and do an on the spot transcription as she talks...and she was very forgiving!