today's smile

After eating lunch at the Hubbard Avenue Diner in Middleton, I spotted a little card on the pavement.  I scooped it up for inspection, and discovered it was an emergency card.  "In case of emergency, please contact..."  It had a gold address label on it, handwritten contact information, and was carefully laminated by hand with tape.

When I returned to work, I dropped it into an envelope with a sticky note, and tossed it into the mail.  I was happily surprised to receive a note in the mail today, thanking me for returning the card.

Dear Scott,

Thank you very very much for sending me the card I lost with so much information on it.  I always carry one of those cards in my pocket in case I fall or whatever.  I knew I had lost it and I wondered where but I have several more.  I wasn't at the Hubbard Ave Diner, but I'm at the Middleton Senior Center a couple times a week and it probably blew over from there.

Thank you again for being so kind and thoughtful.  I wished our country had more people like you.

A few things I enjoyed in particular about the note - the word "and" was always written in smaller letters, and not in line with the rest of the words.  Instead, it was written on an incline from the upper left to the lower right.  It was always the same height as the other words, though.

The note is also written on a small piece of stationary from the Magic Kingdom.  There are a few spots of white out on the note, and a mid-note pen color change.  A satisfying read, for sure.

In other mail related news, I received three cards in the mail, all enclosed in a plastic bag.  However, they were not addressed to me.  Instead, the top card had my return address on it, full postage, and an incomplete mailing address.  Actually, it didn't have a mailing address at all, just the last name of the intended recipient.  

The other two did not have my address, just a last name each.  Confused?  I was, too.  But I think I figured it out.  I recently sent out some mail in the same kind of envelope - blue, and kind of annoying.  I figure the three that I received today were matched up to the one I sent out, and someone from the post office wrote my return address on one.  Crazy?  Maybe.  Amazing?  Not sure.  Either way, if I decide to open them, I will still feel guilty about it.

silly purchase?

I don't think this would be a very silly purchase. I think it's a great idea.

I'm currently a resident of the Sentry Insurance Residence Center. It's an employees only hotel maintained by my employer, due to the amount of people staying in the area from remote offices. It's happily comfortable, and very clean. Not a Marriot that some people would stay in, but I'll be just fine. I'm happy knowing they have decent coffee in the cafeteria. As it turns out, I'm still pretty bitter about the diluted "Wright Brother's Vending" brand coffee at my office.

It's odd driving around Stevens Point again. Although I don't think I have a blog-reader-following, for those of you who don't know, I spent seven months living in Stevens Point while working as an IT co-op at then StoraEnso North America, now New Page Corporation. It all feels very familiar, but still different enough to remind me of how comfortable I've become in Madison. I've been thinking I need a change in location, and hopefully that means temporarily -- vacation style -- but, you never know.

I sometimes think back to when Joe and I were driving around the outskirts of Madison, trying to find the apartments I had made appointments with. I remember driving down the road I currently live off of - how new, and different it felt. It's now comfortable, to the point where I don't notice anything anymore. I can bring myself back and see what it felt like then, almost like looking at a photo of someplace you've never been.

Someone else suggested a quarter-life crisis. Who knows? Speaking of which, if you know anyone who's in the market for a 2004 Volkswagen GTI, 1.8T, let me know.

On a closing note, Google has done Streeview for Madison and the surrounding areas. Check it out, and see if you can find the driveway to my apartment. You'll feel accomplished, I promise.

new year, new blog

It's 2008 now. I would say that I'm going to use the opportunity of a new year to change myself for the better. I'm getting a little more wise as time passes, so I know better than that. Rather than trying to make many changes at once, I'll make little changes, when they make the most sense.

I deleted all of my previous blog postings, because they were tremendously boring. I can't promise that any future postings will be more interesting, but hopefully I can take some notes from my great friend Juno and post interesting things to read, and fun pictures to look at.

I will say that things are looking up. I actually accomplished a few things today - I took a shower, did a load of dishes, and took down my Christmas decorations. Granted, I have a huge list of other things I should start working on - studying for my GMAT, piles of books and magazines to read, Game Boy games to play, a camera to use, and DVDs still in their shrink wrap. I'm all talk.

To top it all off, I'm still thinking about getting a job at the Apple store in the West Towne mall a few days a week. It could be my "mad money" (is that a real term, or did my Mom just make it up?) or extra savings.

My goal is to write something for my profile description. Then I'm leaving the house to assist with appetizer preparation.