This was the first card I received when I briefly started back at Postcrossing in May of last year.

It took 10 days and traveled 4,281 miles from Essen, Germany.

A German saying the sender shared with me: Start the day off with a smile. It irritates people. (Haha! That is probably true.)

This was a nice surprise since it is so far the only one I have received from Israel. I’ve never sent one either.

It only took 11 days and traveled 6,199 miles.

The sender is originally from Russia and she is an ER doctor,

This is so far my one and only card from Sweden. It took 13 days and traveled 4,425 miles.

The person who sent this had some kind things to say about getting my stories published and picked this card in particular because of the handmade book on it.

This card took 9 days to arrive and traveled 2,282 miles from San Jose, California.

The information on the back of the card talks about the Hovden Cannery. It was built in 1916 and was the largest on Cannery Row. It was the last to close and did so in 1973 when the sardine industry went belly up.(I never realized the sardine industry was that booming.) It is now the location of the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.

This card took 22 days to arrive and traveled 4,799 miles from St. Petersburg, Russia. It was sculpted by P. Sokolow and it is called the Fountain The Milkmaid.

This one took 15 days and traveled 4,799 miles from St. Petersburg, Russia. Hummingbirds are the best.

I’ve been way absent lately, but I’m still here, hanging around like a bad case of smog.

In the writing department, things remain the same. I haven’t produced anything new, save a few words here and there. I did find two other places to submit the same stories I’ve been trying to get published for what now seems like half of my life. I should know the outcome of those in about three months(or sooner if they are quick about it). In the meantime, Phil is working on my cover for “Jenny of Lebanon” because let’s face it, I will undoubtedly get a rejection letter – again – and in order to put her out in the world on my own, I need a pretty cover to help sell her. Phil’s a good artist. I have faith he’ll do a good job. But he really can’t work on it until his fancy pen comes in and right now it’s out of stock until something like May. Curses! The writing gods really don’t want me to share my words with the world. Outside of formatting and a cover, JoL is ready to be read. And that’s another thing I have to add to my to-do list. I need to narrate her, too. That’s the one thing I know I can do.

I’ve gotten back into to Postcrossing this year. So if you’ve clicked on my link in my profile and showed up here, “Hi!” Maybe I’ll start flooding my blog with pictures of all the postcards I’ve received. That would be better than pages of depressing rejection letters.

OH! The best news of all is that I got a new car on the 11th! My poor old Saturn, Rosalind, died, or rather her AC did, and we were not about to pay $1300.o0 to fix a 14-year-old car. So, we strolled on over to the local Toyota dealership and bought the car I’ve wanted for years – a Prius. She’s so fancy! It’s going to take me forever to learn all the buttons and their functions. It’s like I got thrown from the dark ages into the future – that’s how different she is from my Saturn. And I think I’ve decided on a name – Starla.

Okay, well I’m going to be a good smog cloud and go hover over the city for a while longer until I figure out what to do next. Take care, strangers!