Vegas, Baby!

Yet another postcard from one of my lobbyists. This one is from Sin City, where said lobbyist just spent a weekend schmoozing and wheeling and dealing with a congressperson and staff. When my lobbyist returned we both agreed that Vegas is "Disneyland for Adults." Anyone with an addictive personality should definitely not go there!

P.S. See! I told you I'd be back. Sort of.

Big Sky Beauty

And another postcard. This one also from one of the lobbyists I support. (I have two of those, plus two PAC people, and a policy wonk.) This particular lobbyist spent a weekend in Montana as part of a fundraising/schmoozing event for one of Montana's two senators. Said lobbyist forgot to actually mail this card whilst in Montana. This same lobbyist is off to Jackson Hole next week and, as I left on Friday evening, I said, "Don't forget to send me a postcard." My lobbyist whipped out these three, asked me to choose one, and then wrote on the back, "Dear Janet: Wish you were here! Lobbyist." Priceless. Here is Big Sky, Montana.

P.S. And now I'm going back on recess.

Hey! You! Over there! Get off my swing, ya big bully.

Lose-ee-anna

A friend of mine was in Louisiana last week with a group from her church. They were down there helping folks, who were devastated by Hurricane Katrina, rebuild. This is the postcard she sent.

Thanks, A, for the @#*$... er... darn postcard!

Wishes

Another postcard arrived today. This one from Adriana, who is summering in the Bay Area with her husband, Lane and their son, Jasper. I'm thinking Adriana is grooving on California! Big time. Here's her postcard from Stanford.

And A: I wish I could quit it, too, but "this thing get ahold of ya... It stays with you and if [you're] not careful, it will suck [you] in...."

Postcards x 3

Lest you thought I'd forgot... er... forgotten... I'm still collecting postcards! These are three I've received over the last month. (I temporarily misplaced the first two. The last one arrived a day or two ago.) So, here they are...

From the beautiful French city of Lyon, a postcard from my friend and Scary Feminist, Sylvia, who was recently over there on business and sent this back. Thank you, Sylvia! MWAH.

From sunny Florida, a postcard from Key West sent to me by one of the people in my office who was recently there on vacation. Thank you, you-who-shall-remain-nameless-here. (One day--if you haven't Googled and found it already--I'll share this blog with you and then you can enjoy seeing your very own card posted here.)

And finally, from somewhere between here and Lincoln, Nebraska, a postcard from the Mattress Factory and my friend, Sister NoMo, who is (was) en route to Salt Lake where she will be pursuing a doctorate in psychology. Apparently Sister NoMo watched episodes of Big Love because she wrote this on the back: "Big Love confirmed the things I dislike about polygamy. The wives had no say as the husband cheated on them to court a fourth wife using the destiny of celestial marriage as justification. As a woman and a feminist, it made me angry. On my way to UT...." Ah, dear friend NoMo, you are gonna have a ball in SLC!

Thanks to all of my friends and fellow co-workers for their cards. Keep 'em coming, folks. (If you want to know where to send me a postcard, email me and I'll send you my address.)

Bluer than Blue

Received another postcard a couple of days ago. This one from my friend, Adriana, who--along with her artist husband Lane Twitchell and her son Jasper--has decamped to California from Brooklyn for the summer. Adriana is author of What I Made for Dinner and, while she's on the Left Coast, is producing a California Edition.


Thanks for the postcard, Adriana! Glad you got to see Tahoe before all the fires. And the answer to your question is: I don't know why I left. It was silly of me.

El Capitan

This postcard of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in central California comes to me from my friends, Lee and Angela. Lee is a rocket scientist--literally--for NASA in Southern California. Angela is a science teacher who is well-regarded by her students. I've been in her class as an observer and if I'd had science teachers like her when I was in junior high and high school, I might have actually enjoyed science more.

She and Lee have two absolutely adorable girls--Emma and Isabella--who will steal your heart out the gate. Without further ado, here is El Capitan. Thanks Lee, Angela, Emma, and Isabella!

From the Metropolis of Thermopolis

Received a jointly-sent postcard today from my friends in the blogosphere--Lisa and Sideon. Sid was in Thermopolis, Wyoming, to visit his birth family and Lisa drove down from Big Sky Country to meet Sid. My understanding is, they had a roarin' good time in ol' Thermop, as the natives call it.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is Thermopolis. At least, the hot springs, anyway.

Thanks, Sid and Sister Mary Lisa!

And now to business: there being no further additons or amendments and with no objections, I move to approve the minutes of the first meeting of the "Damn, I Write Purty Mutual Admiration of Bloggers Society." Who will second it, please?

Tour Eiffel moutons

Dr. Lala and her new boyfriend, The Texas Vet (TexVet, for short), recently spent a weekend in Paris. How would it be to live in Europe and say to your friends, "Oh, we're going to Paris this weekend" or "We did a day trip to Salzburg" or "We grabbed the Chunnel Train and went to London for the day"? For some reason, it's just not the same when we say, "Yeah, I took the $17 Chinatown Express to New York this weekend." So not romantic or glamourous sounding.

Here is le Post Card a la Lala. (Pardon my French. Or lack thereof.)



Mare-see-bow-coo, Dr. Lala!

Ocean, Ocean, Ocean

Mendocino Coast, Mendocino County

One of the things I really, really, really miss about California is the ocean. The sound of the waves crashing on the shore, the wind blowing through my hair, the feel of sand between my toes, the sunsets, tide pooling... There's something healing and rejuvenating about the ocean. It's the one place I've found that is consistently capable of clearing the cobwebs out of my mind and restoring a sense of calm and serenity such that I can make it for days and weeks without overly stressing or feeling overwhelmed.

When I lived in the Golden State, I lived about an hour from the beach--depending on which beach I'd choose and what time of day or day of the week I'd go. Some of my favorite beaches in California are Stinson, Limontour, Glass, Pismo, Morro Rock, San Gregorio, Patrick's Point, Trinidad, and Bean Hollow.

Stinson is the beach my dad always use to take us to when we were little kids and we'd go to visit his parents. We only went three or four times when I was a kid, but it was enough to get the ocean under my skin. Limantour is a lovely stretch of beach in Peyes Reyes National Seashore that is reminiscent of Dover, England.

I can't remember the name of this specific beach,
but it's just around the bend from Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, Mendocino County

If you like seaglass, Glass Beach is your best bet. It's in the old logging town of Fort Bragg, about four hours north of San Francisco and just above the picturesque town of Mendocino. You can cull glass off the shore of what was once the city dump. Believe it or not, there was a less enlightened time when municipalities would actually drive their trash trucks to the edge of the ocean and just dump the garbage!

Morro Bay with Morro Rock in the background, San Luis Obispo County

Pismo Beach is down on the central coast near San Luis Obispo, about three hours north of Santa Barbara. Morro Rock, just north of Pismo and right outside SLO, is a lovely outcropping that is stunning. The only blight on Morro is PG&E built a power station right in front of it, so it's impossible to take an unobstructed photo of it from the east looking west. Still, it's a pretty cool spot!

Bean Hollow, just below Pescadero, San Mateo County

San Gregorio and Bean Hollow are both just below Half Moon Bay. Patrick's Point and Trinidad are up in Humboldt County in what is truly northern California. In addition to the spectacular beaches, you can see some pretty stunning redwoods.

Trinidad State Beach, Trinidad, Humboldt County

All that to say, the beach and the ocean are it for me. It's one of the things about living in D.C. that has been hard, because getting to any beach around these parts isn't a cake walk, it's a death march. And the beaches on the East Coast--at least the ones I been to between Delaware and Florida--are only worth visiting in the off-season. During the season, they're nothing but wall-to-wall bodies of folks who obviously don't give a flip about the health and welfare of their epidermal layers. There's nothing quite as unattractive as 70 year-old men and women in leather skin, thongs and/or Speedos, walking up and down the beach. There's not much that's attractive about 20 or 30 somethings in similar scanty attire either, for that matter. Ick! Just ick.

Serenisea, not far from the Gualala River, Mendocino County

A beach is a beach, I suppose, and I shouldn't complain too much. Still, I try not to go in the summer. Case in point, I was just in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, this weekend and, despite the inclement weather, managed to get in a couple of hours on the sand, hunting for agates and seashells. I stupidly forgot my sunscreen and managed to get a little sunburn on my face. Dumb, dumb, dumb. But, I had a grand and glorious time! The cobwebs have been dusted out of my brain and I'm good to go for a few weeks. What I'll do after that, who knows?

Meanwhile, here's a postcard from Rehoboth. It's a picture of a coastal defense tower from World War II.



And here's someone's YouTube video with the sights and sounds of the ocean on some beach in Hawaii.

Photo copyrights: Janet Kincaid, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006

Video: Courtesy of YouTube

Survival of the Fittest

Several months ago, this postcard arrived at the house. It's been hanging on the fridge since it arrived and I finally took it down yesterday and decided to hang it on the Door of Postcards in the office, which also meant it needed to be added to the growing collection on le Blog. So, here it is. The most Darwinian postcard in the collection.

It's from my friends, The Legislative Fellow and the MIG. They took a trip last fall to the Galapagos Islands and sent this postcard of the famous Blue Boobies. Yes, you read that right. Boobies.

I'm so glad that's not what my boobies look like. Still, they are kind of cute, aren't they? The Blue Boobies, I mean. Not my boobies. (Although, they're kind of cute, too...)

P.S. Happy, blessed Easter!

No Starch, Please

Received a postcard yesterday from my sister Janeen. She was in NYC last week attending an art seminar taught by the guy whose mother wrote the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." I have to say, I'm totally amazed by the level of skill she developed in just five days. Her before and after self-portraits were amazing! Anyway--she sent me this picture of the Flatiron Building in lower Manhattan. At least, I think it's in what is classified as Lower Manhattan. I guess it's really in upper Lower/lower Upper Manhattan. I don't know. I do know it's not far from the Empire State Building and is right up the street from the Foundation Center, where I did a week's worth of training two years ago for my last job.

So here, with no starch, is Janeen's postcard.



Thanks 'Neen!

P.S. Did you draw today?

Fell in Hole; Landed in Pied-à-terre! More at 11...

Received this postcard yesterday from a friend in London who also owns a pied-à-terre in Brighton. And what, pray tell, is a pied-à-terre, you ask? Or maybe it was only me asking... Seems a pied-à-terre is a fancy way of saying "small apartment." Either way, according to said friend, their pied-à-terre overlooks Sussex Square, which is featured in the two pictures that have astericks by them.

Supposedly, the top right photo features the bushes into whence Lewis Carroll's Alice descended into the subterranean hole that led her on all her LSD-induced adventures. I guess Carroll lived in Brighton. As for the architecture of the buildings, it's called Regency Period and is named after Prince Regent George who visited Brighton often. Who knew?

Without further ado, then, I give you the postcard from Brighton.



Thanks, H! Most enjoyable and new things learned today. Always a good thing!

Aw Natch-you-raal

This postcard arrived several days ago, but was only discovered today lost between a bill and a catalog. It's from my friend, Sylvia, who has lived in some truly exotic places during her career in gender and international development. And yet, with tongue in cheek, she writes on the back of this postcard, "I'm finally sending you a postcard from the most exotic place I've ever lived."

Yep, Arkansas definitely holds a candle to Morocco, Mali, Kenya, and Burkina Faso. Not.


Thanks for the card, Sylvia. And sorry it got lost in the shuffle. Hugs to you and MoBob!

P.S. That odd glow you see on my pictures of postcards is a result of my computer monitor throwing light back onto the card as PhotoBooth takes a picture of the card. Just thought you'd like to know....

Sainted Salt Lake

My friend, The MIG, was in Salt Lake last week checking out the University of Utah as a possible candidate for a Ph.D. program at the U. Of course, being in the City of Brother Brigham, she had to send a postcard and this is the one she chose.


Perhaps Brother Romney should hire the folks who wrote the informational blurb on the back of this card to write talking points for his campaign when questions about his religion come up.

"The Mormon Temple can be found within Temple Square in Salt Lake City. This temple, like many others, has a golden angel on top of one of its spires. This angel, Angel Moroni, was said to have brought the lost books of the bible to Joseph Smith." (Emphasis added.)

Well, I'm sure evangelicals will sleep better knowing that.

Thanks, MIG, for the new addition to the wall of postcards!

Twisted

Received a postcard from Dr Lala, who was in NYC last week at the U.N. She sent this beauty of a card. On the back it says, "Gift from the Government of Luxembourg. Non-Violence by Carl Fredrik Reutersward."


Here's a quiz question for all you geography buffs out there: without looking at Wikipedia, Google, Google Maps, MapQuest, or any other search engine, can you name the three countries that border Luxembourg? Bonus points if you can name the official languages of this tiny European country. Double bonus if you can name the capital.

The person who can successfully complete the quiz will win my eternal awe and admiration.

Must Have

Another postcard in the mail today. This one from my friend Lara of measles eradication fame. She's on vacation in the Caribbean right now and sent me this.



Looking forward to seeing you in a few days, Lara!

Networking

Received a postcard today from my friend, Amy "Here's Your Damn Postcard" Krautheimer (that's not really her name, but we'll pretend it is.)



On the back, she wrote, "Here are a few networking techniques to add to your bag of tricks!"

Funny thing is, I just looked at an opening for a project manager in Rocks Springs, WY! I suppose if I lived there, I'd have to get a pick-up truck to make it easier to network.

Thanks, Amy!

My House Has More Postcards Than Your House!

Received another postcard today. This one came all the way from California via Sideon, who apparently returned recently from a whirlwind road trip through Utah and Nevada. Thanks, Sideon!



This brings to 13 the number of postcards I now have hanging on the office door. Hey, I have enough for a quorum, plus one! Keep 'em coming folks! And for those who have sent cards and included return addresses, I'm still trying to find cards worthy of each of you. Keep an eye out. Cards are headed your way.

Meat Me At the Postcard Kiosk Near the Church of the Praying Hands

Had two new postcards last night from my bestest friend, Mary Ellen, over in the Rio Grande Valley. Here they are! And ME: I'll try to find adequate reciprocal cards. I'm still looking for one I can send back to Holly, too. Maybe I'll go down to Pulp this weekend and see what they have....