Why I Hope the Post Office Stays Afloat

I have an 8 year-old pen pal.  I've known her since before she was born and was stubbornly refusing to vacate the womb.  I remember watching her poor mother (who was my downstairs neighbor at the time) marching up and down the street trying to shake her loose.  I used to call to her, "Hey, you're late!  Come out of the darkness and into the light!"  And, eight days later than predicted, she did just that.


Since I'm good friends with her mom, I got to spend lots of time with her in her early years.  We'd go to parks, play on swings and slides, walk dogs together, make lemonade, go to the beach, take funny pictures, and cook meals.  She and I are both Leo females, and therefore have big personalities (and are completely fabulous, of course), so we were always great fans of one another.  However, after several years, she and her mom moved away to San Francisco, and not long afterwards, I moved to Oregon.

:-(

About a year ago, I went back to California for a brief visit and spent a night at her mom's, but my young friend was with her dad for the weekend so I didn't get to see her.  I left her a little note just to say hi and let her know I was sorry to have missed her, and about a week later I received this response in the mail:


"Thanks for writing the note.  Guess what I am reading one hundred and fifty words per minute.  Maybe we can do stuff like I write you a note and you write me a note.  That would be fun.  Guess what I have a wiggly tooth.  Say hi to JR."


[This was the first directive my pen pal gave to me regarding JR, my husband.  Since that letter, she has offered further instructions including:  "Say BOO! to JR," and, "Tell JR bak bak like a bird."]


We began writing back and forth from that point on.  Her letters contain critical biographical information such as:  "My friends names are Iris, Camille, Nick, Nick, Benito, Talia, Eleanor, Pah, Zuzu, Xaria, Max, Starla, and Shavonne plus Vontre."  She recently shared this feedback about her experience with a broken wrist:  "One thing I like about it is it is fun.  Because I don't have to wash the dishes and I can stay in bed and watch tv."  Also, sometimes I get bonus works of art like this:

This:

And this:

At one point, my pen pal decided she was going to write a book of jokes.  Here are some of the jokes that she shared with me:


Knock knock
Who's there?
Cash
Cash who?
I prefer peanuts.


[Side note:  ????]


Here's another one:


What did the chicken say to the cow?
Coward.


[She told me that one in a few different letters, but I still don't get it.  I think I've just become imaginatively deficient in my old age.]


After a few months of working on her joke book, however, my pen pal sent me this sad update:


"I've decided I am not making the book because it is too hard.  Knock knock.  Who's there?  Peace.   Peace who?  Peace out."


The funniest thing, though, was her response to my question about whether or not she'd heard of the book or movie Anne of Green Gables.  Here is what she wrote:

Well, that's not exactly what Anne of Green Gables is about...but close!

While I'm not quite sure how to respond to her ideas about Anne of Green Gables (and I think L.M. Montgomery might be rolling over in her grave), I must say that having a pen pal brings great joy to my life.  I think, if all adults had young pen pals instructing them to tell other adults, "Bak bak like a bird," the world would be a happier place.