What I Learned From the Mail Lady & Artist Date

What I learned on sending out your manuscript--

First, you can mail your mss at the book/manuscript rate which is $2 cheaper than first class or priority mail. Actually about $2.50 cheaper, which may make a big difference to your wallet if you're sending out a lot of manuscripts.

The big difference with media mail (book/mss) is time. It can take about 2 weeks (it becomes low low priority for them), but it can also arrive pretty quickly depending if they aren't that busy. In the end, it will save you some $$ if you can send it that way.

Priority/First Class is about $4.85 and it will get there in 2 days.

At our post office, there is one mean lady and 5 other really nice postal employees. I mail on Fridays because I know she's off.

If you have a cranky post worker, learn their off days.

* * *

Artist date-- I did my artist date today and it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. (I used to like these artist dates, but I've become more of the sweet hermit who wants to stay close to home.) And actually, I enjoyed myself. I parked at the post office and walked down our main street to the local gallery of local artists.

Immediately after leaving my car, I ran into a poet. I thought it was a good sign to run into another writer.

As I walked to the gallery, I noticed the asters were blooming and the co-op preschool where my daughter went began to ring it's bell (snack time!) The schoolhouse the preschool is in is one of the oldest buildings in town (the attic rumored to be haunted too) and the bell is original to the school. Each day one of the preschoolers gets the job of ringing the bell for snacktime-- a thrill for them.

At the gallery, I took notes and spent time browsing. There was one piece I really liked, a print called "Pink Lady" but part of the image was a giraffe. Giraffes have come up twice for me in 2 days on the synchronicity scale. I talked with the artist working at the gallery, a woodmaker.

I found a notebook with the artists bios and sample photos of their work. It was nice to see how people keep art in their life and have an artistic existence. It is something that I aim for in myself, to continue to keep my life creative and full of writing and art.

Afterwards, I walked back to my car at the post office and just like clockwork, another good friend, also a poet (Ronda Broatch) stepped out of her car to check her PO box. She's recently had an acceptance at a journal in Ireland. We talked for awhile trying not to block traffic and making carpool plans for our next poetry workshop.

The sun had come out and I could see Mt. Rainier towering over Seattle and the tips of skyscrapers and Space Needle as I drove home. I thought I heard recently that you can only the top (or all) of Mt. Rainier only about 62 days in the year because of our foggy, cloudy weather. I don't know if that's correct, but when I do see it, it's calming and amazing to me.

As you can see reading this, it was sort of a Seinfeld episode in that nothing happened, yet everything did.