Write a letter, says Amanda. I haven't written a real letter in years. I've written the occasional thank-you and consolation note that demand pen and ink, but a letter? It's been close to a decade since I last carried on an extended snail mail correspondence.

I took a typing course back one summer in high school; the keyboard has pretty much been second nature ever since. My text editor (Vim!) and email are my primary tools at work. Evernote and the like do the honors when I need formatting. (At the moment I'm sitting in my chair in the living room with the Chromebook in my lap typing this blog entry in Evernote. As soon as I add the "published" tag Postach.io will pick it up and display it online.)

But a letter?

The odd thing is that I miss sending and receiving real letters. Email is faster just like digital cameras are faster, but we've lost something in the process. The shoe boxes with the parents' love letters have gone the way of the boxes of childhood photos.

A blog entry is addressed to y'all. A hand-written letter is addressed to you alone. What a glorious waste of time.

Methinks for April I will drop back to writing one blog entry a week so I can take up writing a real letter once a week.

I might even have to buy a new fountain pen. Mom would like that.