As a writer or a soul dwelling in the technology age, let’s challenge each other to write letters more often than texting, video chatting or speaking on the phone. Now, if it is an emergency please do not send letters to the fire department or the police! Picking up the phone or yelling down the street is most acceptable

Moreover, if you feel obliged to share a small portion of the letter with the Ladies with the Pens, it would be greatly appreciated. We would love to have an insight to pieces of your history!

~Confectionately Yours,

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So, “Chowder” is a purple cat personified with childlike qualities who is the apprentice of Chief Mung Daal. Mung owns a catering company in [fictional] Marzipan City! For a complete line up of these groovy characters, feel free to check out The Chowder Episode by clicking on the link! On a personal note, Chowder is my favorite.

Oddly enough, the cartoon grasped my attention about marriage. The ups, the downs, the “what fors”, those denied the opportunity, the laws, the rules, the sanctity and the [in]sanity of it all. Coupled with the overlapping conversations with my “bestie’ on the subject matter [which has also brought her to near regurgitation when seeing and or hearing the word “marriage”] I’m left torn. As someone who once entertained the thought of the ceremony, the dress, the vows and the partnership, I feel like it’s really not worth the song and dance. With divorce rates continuing to rise over “irreconcilable differences” and each party moving on with the remains of the relationship in U-Hauls and therapy sessions dashed with legal jargon, it seems like marriage is a merger that is bad for business. Is it possible for a “couple” to be committed to each another for many years without the ceremonial stamp? If so, why is marriage so important? Aside from the tax implications, if the “love” is more than a “second hand emotion” does shackling the verbal promises in rings and signatures on the dotted lines put a band-aid on loneliness?

To try to obtain clarity on the topic, I shall leave you with a Tanka:

“I Do”, “You Do” and

still left holding uneasy

thoughts for the next day…

Vows left at the alter can

alter the happy ending!

Ehh…cartoons are teachable moments So, for all those writers out there [and lovers of writers], how would a character in your realm respond. What quips or words of advice could be rendered in your character’s soliloquy/monologue?

~Confectionately Yours,

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First favorite memory.

I could hardly sleep that night as I thought about going on our family vacation.  I hadn’t seen Jeff in 2 years and he and I used to be the best of friends.   I couldn’t wait to see him again.

The next morning my mom woke us up bright and early.  My older sister was in the bathroom already getting ready.  I had never cared before, but now I had a reason to look nice.  I could feel myslef becoming more and more annoyed as she took her time putting on her makeup, curling her hair and flipping her bangs in that high 1980′s flip.

“Come on Stacey, I need to get in there too!”  I whinned.

“Stac, hurry and  let your sisters get in the bathroom.  We have to get on the road.”  My mom yelled from down the hall.

I of course thinking I had won the argument smirked at her and she pretended to back hand me.  I flinched away and ran into the bathroom.  Colleen following right behind me.

We packed up the car and at 6:30 in the morning we were on our way.  I don’t know why I had spent any time in the bathroom the 10 hour drive to Oregon was going to mess up anything I had tried to accomplish anyway.

The drive was excruciatingly long.  It wasn’t until we had passed over into the east side of Oregon that I was amazed at the beauty that unfolded in front of me.   Growing up in Utah’s desert I was amazed at the size of the trees.  They were green Mammoths.  Every where you looked it was a different shade of green.  My breath had been taken away.  I thought I was in heaven until I stepped out of the car and felt the cold wet air surround me.  it was June for heaven’s sake.  I was needing a jacket.

We had pulled up in front of a cute brown one level home.  The yard was full of green grass and flowers of every color.  The huge pine trees and saplings that lined the yard gave it a very private feel even on a  suburban street.

As I began to walk towards the door, the front door opened and Jeff came running towards me.  The last 2 years had been good to him, he had grown out of all the baby fat and had finally out grown me.  We embrassed eachother and began to laugh and talk like we had never been parted.

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