Friday, December 18, 2020

Here is what I am living for today, part three.

 You made it this far, you might as well keep reading. 


8. Stickers: Stickers stickers stickers stickers sticker stickers stickers!!! Ever more and ever stickier mountains and piles of stickers! Did you know you can subscribe to have loads of stickers sent to your home (or that of someone you love--or hate, I guess. They probably don't care either way.) every single month? I did! Currently I subscribe to the following sticker delivery services: PipSticks, Stickii, Mrs. Grossman's, Violette Sticker Club, and Four Bears, all of which I recommend highly. But wait, there's more! Etsy has a swath of sticker makers who want to help you cover your world in happy, colorful stuff, and Ebay is my go-to for vintage stickers--sheets of Hallmark Snoopys, Dennison foils and patriotic booklets of Presidents' heads, Scratch-n-Sniff candycanes and pizza slices, rolls and rolls of Suzy's Zoo watercolored critters and Boynton characters who reminded me not to let the turkeys get me down long before Offred did. These are the ones that got me hooked as a defenseless child. Do I have an unhealthy obsession based on a trigger installed deep in my spongy elementary-school brain by teachers and parents who rewarded my earliest achievements with sticky bits of paper? Don't be silly. Will I stab you if you rip me off in a sticker swap? No one knows...or at least, no one who lived...

9. Attitudes!: Once known as Throwing Shade, Attitudes! with self-proclaimed "FemiNasty" Erin Gibson and "HomoSensual" Bryan Safi is all kinds of loud, obnoxious fun as they share their opinions on the news and pretty much everything else, too. Warning: This is a left-leaning ball of political goofiness and not for everyone, however, their non-political podcast-in-a-podcast, Groceries!, is good clean (ish) fun for everyone who buys food on a regular basis. They visit different grocery stores and report back with their take on the stores themselves, the food they carry, the people who shop there, and the people who work there. If you are like me and you can easily lose *hours* in the aisles of even the most run-of-the-mill corner Food Lion, give it a listen. This is my favorite thing to listen to in the shower, broken into little bites to entertain me as I clean this mess up into something that won't frighten the villagers each day. Join me, won't you? 

10. And finally, there's the underappreciated and at least as maligned by 2020 as the rest of us U.S. Postal Service: Please support the very essential workers who deliver the mail despite rain, sleet, snow, hail, Covid-19, and giant orange tornados spinning a path of postal destruction from Mar-a-Lago to everywhere absentee ballots are mailed. Please, do your part to help and make someone's day at the same time by mailing nice things to someone you care about. There are so many people who are feeling isolated right now, a quick note on the back of a postcard or a ripped-out magazine article you read and really liked stuffed inside an envelope has the potential to make someone feel less alone while supporting the service that can bring a physical something from you to someone a thousand miles away for way less than a dollar. I've been a Mailbox Maven, pen pal to many, avid letter writer, and regular card and thank-you-note sender since my best elementary school pal moved away when I was eight, so I clearly have a vested interest in keeping the U.S. Postal service healthy and functioning, but it's not just mail nerds who benefit. Many people, including many handicapped and/or elderly people, rely on the postal service to bring their prescriptions, to communicate with the outside world, and to pay their bills when getting out of the house is extremely difficult all the time, not just during quarantine. It's also the only delivery option all of us have that safeguards our privacy by law and guarantees delivery under penalty of prosecution. Not to get all serious, but please think hard about what that means when it comes to protecting our most vulnerable citizens as well as ourselves. Then go out and buy a book of stamps. Or better yet, one of the crazy cool totes made from old mail bags or any of the other neat things you can find in the Postal Service Gift Catalog. And tip your mail carrier. It doesn't have to be something big, but if you tuck a gift card to a local grocery store or coffee shop into a nice note, I bet you could make one of the six days a week that they venture out into that big, germy world for you a happier one. :)

So that's my list of ten things I'm living for at the moment. I'm happy to share them if your list is a little light right now. I'd also love to know what made your list that I missed. It's always good to have a few extra on hand. 

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