Closing an ugly chapter

I still pay all of my bills via mail, which seems to strike friends and coworkers as quaint. I like sitting down to write checks and making sure that all of the accounts are balanced. Every few months, I find an error in the billing and call to resolve it. And then when I'm done, there's a neat stack of stamped envelopes waiting to go out – it's a nice mark of keeping things in order. It's such a little thing but it makes me feel successful.

Well over a year ago, Kevin went to the post office, I asked him for stamps, and due to a miscommunication on my part he came home with books of dreadful "celebrate" stamps. I tried to bring them back and trade them for something prettier, but it wasn't allowed. So I've been slowly working through them for the last 14 months. The postage rate went up, so I could at least use the pretty Tiffany 1¢ stamps, too, but I'm so happy that I only have two left.



I bought two books of pretty new stamps (hearts and sunflowers) last week – they will bring such happiness to my bill-paying.