Some Day

I'm going to come up with something to write about. But until that happens, here's another mostly pasted post.

I recently got a Flat Stanley in the mail from my friend Jeremy. He got it from our friend Tim's wife, who teaches the 3rd grade in Texas.

For those of you who don't click on the Flat Stanley link and you don't know what a Flat Stanley is, here's a brief primer: A class cuts out a line drawing of Stanley, pastes it to a picture somebody has drawn, sticks it in an envelope with a location log, and send the who business off to somebody reliable enough to keep the process going. After each person receives Stanley in the mail they are supposed to sign the travel log, mail it on to somebody else, and then send the class a postcard to let them know how Stanley has been getting along. Hence the 3rd grades learn about geography for a while, then about how people are flaky and/or distrustful of chain letters.

I happen to be one of those people who are distrustful of chain letters, but I recognized the name of the teacher, so I mailed it on and set out to send back a postcard. Except I didn't have a postcard, I had a box of thank you cards. Had I had a postcard, I would have just written an update, but I thought it would seem strange to receive a thank you card without the words "thank you" included.

And without further ado, here's what the inside of the card said:

January 6, 2007


Dear Ruttan Clan,

Thanks for sending Flat Stanley out to see the country. We’ve had a great time the past few days in San Francisco.

While he was out here Stanley has seen the Golden Gate Bridge, the beginnings of the new Bay Bridge, the Transamerica Building, San Francisco’s China Town, and we even went to a New Years party hosted by somebody who works for Google.* Stanley would love to buy a house out here, but if you don’t work for Google it’s too expensive. Also, he’s not sure how he feels about earthquakes.

On Monday Stanley will head South and East to Albuquerque. He’s hoping that if he goes there to see the sites he’ll come away with a better understanding of how to spell Albuquerque.** I wish him the best of luck.


Sincerely,

Mike




* This sentence is a blatant lie. Stanley saw the inside of an inlaw apartment in the significantly less appealing than it sounds Ocean View neighborhood, then sat on my desk while I saw all those places. Eventually Stanley got off my desk and climbed back in an envelope to go visit Albuquerque, thereby never actually being outdoors in San Francisco.

**Thank god for spell check.