Since adding that I love hummingbirds to my profile, I’ve gotten many postcards with them on it. This makes me happy.

This one took just 3 days and traveled 624 miles from Carol Stream, Illinois.

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.

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It’s nearly spring.  Do you know what that means?  It means it is almost time to start gardening again!  Horrah!

I haven’t bought any seeds or a greenhouse to get me started, though. I should probably do that soon, if I intend to plant sometime after Easter.   Last year, I think Phil and I went a little over board with our garden.  We got a lot of food out of it, but it was very hard to maintain, and my water bill went through the roof!  It truly was a beast.  Every time I went to pick tomatoes, the bushes would swallow me whole.  Sometimes, I had to get my mother to help pull me out.  It was crazy, I tell you.

I’m not sure what I want to grow this year.  Tomatoes and cucumbers are a must, but other than that, I really can’t decide.  Last year, my beans didn’t do squat, but I think that had something to do with not having a big enough stick for them to climb.  The cantaloupe and the watermelon were a complete bust, too.  I didn’t get anything out of them.  It looked like they were going to yield me some yummy goodness, but then they up and died on me.  The green(red) peppers didn’t do so bad, but they could have done better.  They needed more support than what I gave them.

Maybe I can find some time this weekend to go to Lowe’s and stare at the seed section.  With so many choices, picking out only three or four vegtables is going to be hard!  If I had a farm and a million dollars, I think I would pick every vegtable imaginable.

This year I don’t have to worry about renting a tiller because Jeri, a family friend, has been ever so kind, and given me hers.  That was super awesome of her.  I nearly fell out of my chair when she said I could have it.  Last time, when I rented one, Phil only had something like four hours to till the entire garden area.  He was only able to accomplish that because we had spent the entire day and night before preparing the soil with a shovel!  Phil nearly broke his back that day.

I’ll be sure to post the progress, and if I have enough, you are all more than welcome to have some.

Oh, and this weeked Phil and I are going to the circus.  When I found out Phil had never been , I told him we had to go.  Everyone has to see the cirus at least once in their lives.  If we don’t run away with them, I’ll be sure to post losts of videos and pictures when we get back.

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Last October, I received the above card from a Postcrossing user located in Germany.  Like normal, I registered it, thanked the sender, and went about my day.  And that was the end of that.  Or so I thought.

Fast forward several months.

Yesterday, on my day off, I started to flip through all of the postcards that I have received through Postcrossing – which as of today is 92.  That is a small number compared to some.  There are users who have sent more than 1000 postcards.  Of course, they have been members since Postcrossing began back in 2005.  If I keep participating, I wonder how long it will take me to reach that number. Or how much money I’ll end up spending.  Eek!

Having uploaded my postcards in no particular order, I had to go through each country set and post to figure out which ones hadn’t been featured yet.  That was a task, let me tell you.  I’m glad I did it now and not 500 postcards from now.  When I first scanned them all in, I wanted to scream!

Once I had them all organized, I started picking out a few that I thought would make interesting posts.   I typically upload four or five, and come back to them during the week when I feel motivated to say something about them. I like to upload a variety of postcards, but since the majority of my postcards, like so many other postcrossers, come from Finland, Germany, and the USA, that can be hard.  Officially, I have received postcards from 26 countries.  Of the remaining 23, I have received no more than 4 postcards per country – many of them just one.

So, I picked out a few, this one from Germany being one of them.  I flipped over to the back and read it again since it had been awhile.  Something written(printed rather) on the back caught my attention.  The sender said that he lived on the north sea. Then I looked at the return address, and the name seemed familiar.

Last week, I sent out a batch of new postcards, one of which went to Germany, particularly to a fellow who lived on the North Sea.  I remembered this because he said so in his very short profile.  I immediately signed into Postcrossing.  I had to see if the person who had sent me the postcard in October and the guy I had just sent my postcard to were one in the same.

“What are the odds?” I thought.  “That out of 86,000+ users, I randomly selected one who has already sent me a postcard.  It can’t be the same person.”

I clicked on Sent Postcards, and then on the user ID number.  Thankfully, it will still tell me the Postcrosser’s address up until the time the card is registered.

I looked at the name and address that popped up on my screen and back to the return address on my postcard.  I looked again.  I even double checked the spelling of the name, street, and city.

“Holy crap!”  I shouted.  It’s the same freaking person!”

I am really curious if this has happened to anyone else.  It has to have happened to someone, somewhere, right?  I can’t be the only one.

I wouldn’t be as surprised if the user had sent more postcards than he had, but he was only showing 90 postcards sent.

Phil told me later that I should play the lottery.  Maybe I should.

Sadly, I don’t think the person I sent my postcard to will ever receive it.  He hasn’t signed on in over a month, and the last postcard he registered was in November of 2008.  If he does, though, I will be curious to know if he realizes who I am.

Oh, and for those wondering, the postcard artwork was done by Karin Blume.  Apparently, this postcard came from a collection that she made.

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The back of the postcard had this to say about the Amazon Theater Opera House :

Built in architectural European Style, the majestic Amazon Theater was inaugurated in 1896 and became a national property in 1966.  The concert hall is in the form of a horseshoe and has capacity for 701, including three floors of box seats.  In the external area stands a dome with 36,000 ceramic tiles in the colors of the national flag.  Built during the Amazon rubber boom, it is synonymous with glamor and richness.

I was curious as to how the inside looked, so I did some searching on the web, but was only really able to find one decent picture that showcased the theaters’ opulence.

I think it is rather impressive.  Someone definitely put a lot of thought and detail into it.  The ceiling looks like it has a painted design.  I’m sure the pictures don’t do the building justice, like many things in life.

I’ve never been to an opera before.  People say that they are emotional and powerful, but I’m not a big fan of the way opera sounds.  In Xiamen, China, a troop came to our neighborhood and put on a Chinese Opera.  I swear it lasted all day, and it was by far the loudest, most annoying thing I have ever heard so far in my life.  Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had I walked down the street and watched it.  Who knows?