New Year's Goals #1: Keeping In Touch

I've really never been one for making New Year's resolutions. However, this year was a bit different. I wouldn't quite call this a list of resolutions or goals but more of a roadmap of how I wanted to better my life this year. I made lists of improvements I could make at work, at home, in my personal life, etc. It wasn't all bad either. I made sure to list what I was happy with in my life and on top of the list are my friends and family. 

Truly, it's easy to keep up with friends & the folks thanks to social media but to me there's still something lacking. There's a void of emotional connection that no amount of likes or followers can fill. I think that's one of the reasons I'm really not active on social media (which is why it's taking me forever to set it up for this blog). Either that or it's just that my friends and I are in our 30s and if I'm being truthful, we're all just kinda boring. 

One of the issues I want to work on this year is staying in touch with my dangerously boring friends and family. Looking at my main circle of friends, siblings, cousins, etc., we run the age gauntlet from about 26 to knocking on the door of 40. Most of us have children with the oldest in their first year of high school. A majority have more than one kid. Let's toss in the fact I live 800 miles away from everyone so contact is pretty much just scrolling through Facebook and throwing up a couple of likes or generic comments.

One way I've kept in touch is through letters, cards, and horribly-drawn stick figure cartoons. My best friend from college, Jeannette, gets several issues a year of a comic I started drawing for her over a decade ago. It's called "Jeannette the Spy" and it obviously features the adventures of Jeannette and her exploits as a spy. These are usually accompanied by a multi-page letter of my ramblings (which I'm trying really hard not to do here but I think I'm failing). Despite the fact I don't have kids and my job has a super loose schedule I really don't have the time to draw comics featuring Soviet dictators or describe the weird dude running around in corn fields at 3:30 am in Cairo, Illinois. 

So what's a gal to do when she needs to lift a friend's feelings from 800+ miles away? She sends her pal an invitation to her wedding to George Clooney. To be held this November in Lexington, Kentucky next to the dumpster behind a Waffle House.

pls pls pls don't forget to rsvp so you can get a penthouse po box!

p.s. sorry amal

I made this invitation using Paperless Post. I've used Paperless Post for all sorts of things in the past, most notably my department's long-tenured administrative assitant's retirement party (she was there for an astonishing 42 years!). There are tons of designer options (Kate Spade, Mr. Boddington's Studio, Oscar de la Renta, and Rifle Paper Co. among many others) for all occasions, including the Kate Spade invitations to my upcoming nuptials with Mr. Clooney.

Paperless Post costs about as much as send a card through the mail. Some might hesitate at the cost of sending an online greeting card but A) the user experience is SO much nicer than any random e-card site and B) sometimes being able to send something right away is a nice gesture. I sent the card above to my friend when she admitting to having a hard day at work. While I'll always love sending a card via snail mail there really is a place for being able to send something exquisite right away. Not only can I send something designer, there's a place where you can upload your own designs. This allows me a new way to continue sending Jeannette spy comics. At least eventually, once I learn how to use my Walcom tablet. 

This post was sponsored by Paperless Post.

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