This completion may be simple, but it makes me really, really happy.

At first, I wanted to send some crazy doohickey, like my hat that looks like an elephant head, to some far off friend, maybe in another country.

Then I randomly came across a postcard that I purchased on my last trip to SF. It features an Edward Gorey drawing that I absolutely LOVE. Truly, it amuses me to no end. In fact, I intended to keep and never actually mail this postcard.

I'm a big Gorey fan. I even appeared on stage in an award-winning musical rendition of some of his stuff, aptly called Gorey Stories. This is me from that show (in the back):


[photo by Peter McCabe]

Since I had spent most of the day at Memorial Day parties, and spent a good deal of that time telling my friends that I'm going to be moving to San Francisco soon (true!), I was still thinking about who I needed to contact. My brain put two and two together.

I have a friend named Phoenix who lives with her boyfriend in Alhambra, CA (about 15 miles from me). I haven't seen her in a really long time, which is a shame because she and her boy are super cool folks. They're a very cute retro-Victorian pseudo-goth couple, so as you can imagine, fellow Gorey lovers. I managed to dig up an invite Phoenix had sent to me for their last Halloween party, which I was unable to attend:



Notice the cool wax seal she had applied to the invite:



So I took this opportunity to reach out to this long-time-not-seen friend and invite her to my going-away party. And I'm so glad I did, because I've lost her phone number and email address, and probably would not have contacted her were it not for this task. Thanks, SFØ!
______________________

UPDATE: Phoenix got the card and sent me an email:

Oh Joe!

It saddens deeply to hear you're moving away. Well, we'll always have Myspace.
Of course I'd love to come to your going away party. Just name the time, place, & what I can
bring. I'm looking forward to seeing you again.

oxox,
phoenix