Put it in writing

This is not the Bob Ellis I was referring to but this Bob was too good to not use.

Last weekend I went to a letter-writing event where cultural people of note are asked to write a letter to someone and read it to the audience. The event is called Women of Letters but this time it was all about the dudes. The topic of each letter was to a woman who greatly influenced their lives. Let me tell you there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Bob Ellis read his letter to his wife. I was so choked up I thought I wouldn’t be able to jam any more of my club sandwich in to my mouth.

No one writes letters any more. I was such a big letter writer up until email. In the 90s, I even used to do post-restante to far off places when my friends used to go travelling and I’d be in Darwin spending my money on flights down to Melbourne to see The Beastie Boys and Sonic Youth. I was such an instant gratification girl (or grrrl as it was back then), it was inconceivable to save for a few months to buy a ticket overseas.

Oscar, my penpal

Today I only have one pen pal and this year I’ve been particularly shit at writing to him – I’ve only managed one or two this year. What I love about putting pen to paper is that once you start on a thought, you just have to stick with it, you can’t delete and you can’t add in random youtube links. And there’s nothing more exciting than receiving a letter in the post.

My commitment to letter writing has been crap because it takes time - writing is way slower than typing (no shit, Sherlock) plus you’ve got to have enough newsworthy events going on to be able to deliver good material. I’ve been a bit light on with that this year as I fell down a uni/work rabbit hole and have only just clawed my way out of it. (I am currently in denial that my thesis is due in June next year and haven’t locked in my question, but that’s a whole other thang.)

Don Draper composing a love letter to his true love (me).

My commitment to this blog has been schizenhaueur lately as well. Again, I’ve had no material! I’ve been gorging on True Blood (Eric!), Mad Men (Don!) and Glee (Puck!) and not been doing much else. I have square eyes. I even didn’t zumba for ten days and it was killin’ me. Okay, so I think I might’ve just guilted myself into writing a list: write a letter to my pen pal, post on this blog more often ... and get my ass to zumba and reggaeton, STAT. I’m going to be poolside in L.A. then on a Mexican followed by an Ecuadorian beach in 7 weeks and not only will have to pop and drop, but look good doing it in a bikini. Jeezus.

 What I have envisioned for some light pops and drops.