Monday, May 01, 2006

Mr. Postman, is there a letter for me...

Jesse and I were mailing off a package to our soldier today – we are part of Soldier’s Angels. We sat in front of the post office trying to think of something interesting to say in the letter to go with our package. We try to be entertaining, but we really do not know this young man, therefore writing can be difficult. He is not our first soldier, but he is probably the most responsive of the three soldiers we have had. The first soldier wrote short emails until he came home - then nothing. The second soldier never responded to our packages or letters at all – really difficult. Jesse wrote to a soldier, whom we met through a military blog, for almost a year. About the time he was to come home, Jesse told him she had enjoyed writing to him and receiving his emails, but she knew he would not write once he returned to the States. His last email said, "Of course I will always write to you." Since then she has heard nada. There was also a certain Airman to whom Jesse wrote. While he was deployed, he wrote quite a bit. Once he was home, letters were few and far between. Jesse thinks it is just a "guy thing" - just the way men are. It does not really matter. We just want to support our soldiers as best we can in whatever way we can. Hopefully they enjoy the packages and letters. We do try to please.

That brings me back to the post office today. One of the postmen behind the counter at the PO is just pretty cute. He is more my age than Jesse’s. Although he is always helpful, friendly, and efficient with my APO packages, he tends to flirt and be a little friendlier with Jesse when she is mailing something (who can blame him). Although Jesse likes his teasing, the truth is, she gets a little flustered by him. She said that last week she was mailing a painting to a friend. She had put the painting in a pizza box. When she handed the box to the postman, he said, "Wow, a good looking woman and a pizza too!" Jesse just responded with her usual smile, but she said it reminded her of that internet joke. " What internet joke?" I asked. She said, "You know, the one where it says ‘How to please a woman’ and then it has a list with all sorts of things - like ‘show up with flowers’ and lots of other things for men to do to be pleasing to women. But then it says ‘How to please a man – show up naked and bring food."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! Soldiers' Angels! Very few of my adopted keep in touch regularly, and none after they have come home. I didn't ever expect them too, and none have promised, although I always say they can contact me any time for anything.

Buck said...

Took me forever to get to "Post a Comment." Why? Who knows? All you get is:

"Blogger Problem

This server is currently experiencing a problem. An engineer has been notified and will investigate.

Status code: 1-500-19"


THAT tells ya a lot, doesn't it? (sarcasm /off)

But anyway...

Re: ‘How to please a man – show up naked and bring food."

There's a LOT more truth in that joke than most folks (M & F) are willing to admit! :-)

I really admire your and Jesse's "stick-to-it-ness" when it comes to persevering with your writing in the absence of feedback/replies. I don't think I could do it; perhaps it's another male trait, but I find a failure to reply to your wonderful support simple bad manners. I say that with the full understanding that our guys are busy as all get-out while they are deployed, especially the guys on the front lines. Still and even, I'm sure there's some down-time.

You and Jesse have my deep respect, Lou.

Bag Blog said...

Our soldiers do an awesome job that often goes thankless. It is not such a hard thing to keep writing them. It reminds me of the old days - when you flirted with a guy, let him know you were interested, and got no response - you felt foolish.