Once I had settled on a fountain pen my attention turned to the types of cards and/or paper stock I would use for my correspondence. I searched through the stationery store’s limited inventory and wasn’t immediately taken with any of the 10 or 20 count sets of blank notecards. I did purchase a small sheaf of resume weight paper but, otherwise, left empty-handed. I thought of checking my Android phone’s GPS or asking my daughter’s friend, Siri, to inquire where I could locate a larger establishment, one that might have more possible choices.
But as I drove home in a steady rain shower I remembered a box of personalized notecards, with envelopes, sitting on the top shelf of my office credenza. They had been there for years. I don’t even remember which of our campus directors gave them to me. Every so often, when I wanted to personally thank someone, I would open the small container, remove an off-white colored card, dash off some well-chosen words and, voila, duty done. However, because this routine was only occasionally followed the box was still quite full.
There were also notecards my father, long since retired, designed from his collage artwork. These abstract assemblages, made from a variety of materials, graced the hallways of my home and office. For years he consigned one of the neighborhood office supply stores to print dozens of blank cards from his creations to disseminate to his children and grandchildren.
Furthermore, in the same drawer as my father’s creations, I unearthed a treasure trove of greeting cards that were gathering the proverbial dust. There were a ton of them. Don’t we all have that one location of accumulated chaos in our homes? Or, in my case, two drawers of the front hallway hutch were overflowing with cards, cards, and more cards. There were boxed sets; holiday cards; doubles and triples from my Star Trek card collection; blank cards; small cards; colorful cards; signed, but unsent cards. My children’s handmade birth announcements were tucked away at the bottom along with extra wedding announcements (from a few decades ago) and their accompanying pre-printed thank you cards. I didn’t bother to count, but I’m sure the stockpile numbered well over 200.
The rediscovery of my office notecards and home greeting card accumulations, now added to the purchased blank paper, should fortify me with enough writing stock to last, at the bare minimum, through the December holidays. So, I am now ready for the Writing Project to commence, the challenge to begin. I have identified the individuals for my first week’s worth of correspondence. I am ready, as the striking paperboys proclaim in the Broadway hit, Newsies, to “Seize the Day.”
T minus two days.
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