Tape From Julie

Why is it that I like to check my mailbox everyday? Why do I want to insert my key and open the little door just to find inside a bunch of stuff inside that really is a waste of time and paper? I guess it's like looking at my email everyday too--you never know what good thing might be in there amidst all the junk. Although a big percentage of the box's contents are bills and ads, sometimes it's a card, a note, a wedding invitation, or a package. If I open up my mailbox and see a small padded mailer, I get a huge grin on my face because I know it's a tape from Julie. It's like a tradition. For more than ten years, my friend Julie and I have been mailing padded mailers back and forth to one another, each containing one or two audiocassettes. What's on the cassettes? Us. Stories. Life. We talk to each other this way. Sure, we email each other now and then, and we both have Yahoo IM, but she's not on the computer nearly as much as I am. Phone calls are usually reserved for urgent news or birthdays or random calls when the mood strikes. But usually we just send tapes back and forth.
I don't quite remember how it all started, but I'm pretty sure it it was Julie's idea. Although Julie is good at many things, letter writing is not one of them. When she was away at college, she used a recorder during class to tape lectures, and my guess is that she got the idea one day to record her own self, then mail it in place of what might have been a letter. The idea has not stopped. Over the years email and cell phones have become a common part of all our lives, yet Julie and I still use this "tried and true" format to keep one another semi-current. We each have hand-held recorders and a stash of audiocassettes--someone asked me if I've saved the cassettes over time and the answer is no--we re-use the tapes over and over until the quality goes bad (or they get something spilled on them, or eaten by the dog, etc.) I most often talk to Julie while I'm in my car. Yes, I can drive and talk at the same time! I tell her about where I'm headed, plans for the week, updates of previous activities, frustrations, prayer needs, the latest at work (she used to work where I do, years ago), things I notice as I'm driving (i.e. signs, bad drivers, sunsets) and so on. Or I comment on things she's mentioned in previous tapes. By the time I finish a tape, mail it and she listens, weeks have passed and the news may be a bit out of date, but she feels as I do--we're excited to receive a tape and hear the voice of a friend. It doesn't matter if she's telling me something very ordinary (like about mowing the lawn!), I'm still eager to know. And I sometimes I get the bonus of hearing a few minutes from her young daughters, Sara and Kim. I got a tape from Julie just the other day, and I've already devoured it.
There is no one else I interact with in this manner, but I'm not sure I would want to--it's "our thing". A special thing between two friends. {Thanks Julie--it's been fun!}
Note to self: make sure you don't blab too long on a tape before realizing the pause button has been on the whole time....