Dear Candace,
Something very big happened. I still can’t believe how blessed I am. I thought being within 30 minutes of IKEA was enough to make me content for the rest of my life, but this is like the cherry on top: A new Chick-fil-A opened a mere four miles from my home!
It’s located right next to our library, which is undergoing an enormous expansion and remodel. So when I’m in the library, I can look through the window directly at Chick-fil-A and think about how wonderful waffle fries and frosted lemonade is. And when I’m in Chick-fil-A I can gaze into the Library and think about which next true crime book I want to check out. It’s a perfect marriage.
If you come to visit I will take you there and if we want to be good, we can have a salad. The salads ARE yummy. I think with the accountability of a companion I could overcome the fries and just stick with a salad. I’m going to have to think this through.
Growing up in a small town, then living in rural Missouri through my teens and twenties makes this whole suburban experience a novelty I’m never tired of. I CAN WALK TO A STARBUCKS HALLELUJAH.
In contrast to this wonder in my life, I’ve been sick all week. You’d think I put “BE SICK” on my 2017 list of resolutions with how often it’s happened this year. I’m pretty much wasting away what little youth and beauty I have left. When company dropped by, they skirted around me very carefully, their eyes wide. And I HAD put on a little foundation and mascara, even.
Perhaps I should see my current circumstances as a gift. All this illness and melancholy probably means I’m about ready to write an epic, tragic love story. It will be so movingly written that even I, the stone-cold non-crier at the movie theater, will shed a tear when my powerful tale of love and loss is told onscreen. Aren’t some of the best things borne out of difficult times? If not a novel, surely these bouts of illness will at least produce a poem in the vein of John Keats. This could be the fever talking, but I doubt it.
Please make sure my book gets published should I die as soon as I finish the manuscript,
Rachel
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