penn

Mail

I love post office boxes. There's something fun about heading into the post office to unlock my mail from a little box. Plus, I appreciate the security of knowing my packages and letters are locked up; I've had mail stolen before, and it's not fun. I first had a PO Box when I lived in Gold Beach in the Oregon coast after college. The town was so little that every resident had a PO Box. The post office was right next to the port where I worked, so it was simple to check for mail a few times a week.

When I moved to my current location in Minnesota, I got mail at the house where I lived. But once I moved in with Matt, I didn't want to get mail at the school (we live in campus housing); I technically wasn't supposed to live here, and I thought getting mail here would be weird. I got a PO Box instead, and I was able to swing by regularly enough to check for mail on my way to or from work. I have had my box for 5 years now, and it's been great.

Now that I work at the same school, I found getting mail much more difficult this past year. I started phasing over items to our on-campus box, since the mailroom is right here. We get an email when we have a package. It's all fairly simple. But I still liked having the box, both for mail I hadn't switched over yet and for getting packages while the school was on break. but it still was a pain to get down to the post office more than once every few weeks.

Yesterday, I went and gave up my PO Box. The cost had gone up to $60ish a year, and it just wasn't worth the extra cash to me. I gathered the last of my mail and turned in my keys.

Long story short: if you still only have my PO box address, that's not good anymore. Feel free to email me if you want our physical address; that hasn't changed, and it will be good the entire time we live here. That is one big joy: apartments change regularly here on campus (sometimes called the round robin, clean cups, or the fruit basket upset), but our address never does. At least something is simple.

Our new arrival

On the 4th of July, after a long labor, we welcomed our new arrival: a girl we named Julie!

Here's a hospital pic -- the velcro on her face is from a little face mask. She had jaundice and needed to wear the mask while getting light treatment. She is a little peanut; in all these pictures, she is wearing newborn clothes. She is just over 8 pounds now (and was just under at birth), so she is growing well.

She is absolutely adorable, and we are so in love. The last two weeks have been full of new challenges and a profoundly deep amount of love. I'm lucky that both Matt and I are off for the summer, so we've been able to adjust together. The little one sleeps enough that I'm tired but not exhausted.

We are learning new boundaries; the spur of the moment drive up to the Twin Cities (1 hourish) is not a reality for us for now. We've been twice -- once went just fine, and one time we overstayed and had a noisy trip back.

She is responsive and delightful. We read books, make faces, sing with her, and tell her all about the world. We are both absolutely enamored. I can't wait to see what the coming days hold.