sending and receiving mail as a creative endeavor

There's a chasm between living in a new place and feeling comfortable in a new place– feeling like you have a real life and are at home in that place. Maybe it's about having your favorite bars and coffee shops. Maybe it's about having bars and coffee shops you hate. Maybe it's about finally getting to all the venues people talk about and knowing how to get to them all. Maybe it's about feeling something well up inside you when their teams win pennants. Maybe it's all of those things.

For me, recognizing comfort in Philadelphia looked like going to a Flyers game against the Islanders earlier this year with a friend of mine. Or at least I'd consider her a friend– though at the time we'd never done anything one on one. She's an Islanders fan and asked me about an hour and a half before she was leaving for the game if I wanted to go. The person she was supposed to go with ended up not being able to go and she thought to ask me.

I got ready and I met her at the bar nearby. We took the train down to the Wells Fargo Center. We drank 24 oz beers and she talked about all the players she likes and loves and hates. Hockey's not really my sport, but it's easy to buy into with the right people. She's definitely the right people.

I have to imagine I wasn't her first choice, I don't exactly remember the sequence of events that led her to ask me. It didn't matter, though. The fact that she asked me at all felt like the beginning of breaking through the wall of years long friendships and falling outs that make up Philadelphia.

I think about the moments that make me feel like I really live here– that I'm comfortable here and happy here– and how small they really are.

Running into an acquaintance at a show you didn't know they were going to and talking to them after.

Being able to drive yourself home without getting lost because you know the GPS is about to take you the most frustrating way.

Life is small comforts. I think the point is to feel comfortable, whatever that looks like, and I would like to know what that looks like for other people.

I'd like to hear about your small moments where you first felt comfortable in a new place. Maybe about the place you feel most like you're home. Maybe about a friend that made that place home. Maybe about your first favorite place in the city you went to.

The way it works is as follows:

1. Fill out this form to receive instructions and maybe other little stuff in the mail.
2. Send me back a report your small moments inside the included pre-stamped envelope.
3. I will scan it and include it in a zine.

Easy! Let's send some mail. Make something. If you have questions feel free to email.