Greetings Earthlings

There are many things I love, two of them are greeting cards and great quotes. Put them together and you have an instant Jenna hit. I collect quotes. And I collect greeting cards. I have a box of them for various occasions. The problem being that some I like so much I don't ever want to send.

Like browsing in a book store, I can browse a card stand for a very long time. However (it may be a language prejudice here) but America is SO much better for card browsing. I just like the designs and text better. And I especially love to get great cards. A good card has a good home with me. I don't just read them and throw them away. No, no. I will put cards out on display for several weeks, until their removal is long overdue. Usually about the time P says, "helloooo...your birthday was 3 months ago..." And that's still not the end. If the card comes with a really touching, personal message I will keep it stored forever. If not, I cut out the design on the front and file it in my special "images" expandable file and then recycle these as either gift wrapping or scrapbooking decoration.

I mentioned before that I had been a bit remiss in reaching out to people, this includes not only friends, but also family. I can't count the number of "are you still alive over there" e-mails from my mother. To that tune, (it was recently my birthday - yea, happy birthday to me - I'm officially a 30-something at 32. No denying it anymore.) my mother sent me two artsy cards along with my birthday gift, one of which was a card + quote that said, "when there are no words...know that the silences are carrying the thoughts and prayers of all who love you." I made an audible "awww, how sweet" sound when I opened it. What a perfect card for the situation, I thought.

As usual, I put all my nice birthday cards on display (currently the window ledge in my Amsterdam apartment bedroom). It was only yesterday, laying in bed, that I reread the card from my mother and realized it was intentionally meant to be a grief card. D'oh! Figures that would fit appropriately into my life.