{"id":3195,"date":"2010-02-11T23:18:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T23:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/2010\/02\/11\/i-changed-the-word-girl-to-boy-and-theres-still-more-to-come\/"},"modified":"2010-02-11T23:18:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T23:18:00","slug":"i-changed-the-word-girl-to-boy-and-theres-still-more-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/2010\/02\/11\/i-changed-the-word-girl-to-boy-and-theres-still-more-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"I changed the word girl to boy (and there&#8217;s still more to come)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/foxtongue\/4350876036\/\" title=\"Tony's Valentine from the World's Smallest Postal Service by Foxtongue, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4015\/4350876036_2bcba52e69_m.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\" alt=\"Tony's Valentine from the World's Smallest Postal Service\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Valentine&#8217;s is creeping up, the candy coated holiday founded on Lupercalia, a Roman parade festival celebrating sex and werewolves. It basically involved sacrificing a goat, wrapping the wet and bloody skin around you, then energetically racing naked around the city and cackling madly while smacking women with whips for pregnancy luck.<\/p>\n<p>Me, I just can&#8217;t be bothered to put that much effort in. Someone hands me a goat at the crack of dawn, there&#8217;s not going to be any leaping out of bed to kill it, no, nor running. At least, <i>I<\/i> wouldn&#8217;t be the one running. This is <i>dawn<\/i> we&#8217;re talking about. AKA bedtime. Also, seriously, what did that poor goat ever do?<\/p>\n<p>So rather than running naked and bloody through the streets of Seattle, something I&#8217;m theoretically capable of if I weren&#8217;t so damned lazy, sure, I&#8217;ve decided to celebrate this Valentine&#8217;s by sending Tony treasures through the mail instead. How <i>pale in comparison<\/i>, I know, but wait! Don&#8217;t judge yet! These treasures might not involve flaying animals or whipping nubile young women, but they&#8217;re <b>awesome<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The first present arrived last week, a new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crankbunny.com\/\">Crankbunny<\/a> design made in collaboration with poster artist Brian Ewing called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.etsy.com\/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=24704368\">Tell-Tale Heart Custom Valentine Card<\/a>, a paper ribcage which opens up to reveal a personal secret message under a scarlet scratch away foil heart. My message read <i>you have my heart. xox jh<\/i>. It was a tricky choice, given that she has so many beautiful cards, but as I gave <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crankbunny.com\/pup_cards.htm#decoder\">Secret Decoder<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crankbunny.com\/pup_robot.htm\">Dancing Robot<\/a> cards last year, I wanted something new, something a little more to Tony&#8217;s specific tastes, so I decided the macabre ribcage would appeal more to his recovering goth-osity than anything else in her shop, especially as it comes in a smart black envelope. Ha.<\/p>\n<p>The next present arrived just yesterday, a valentine by Lea Redmond from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leafcutterdesigns.com\/shop\/wsps\/order.html\">The World&#8217;s Smallest Postal Service<\/a>! The letter is transcribed on a miniature desk in the tiniest of script, sealed with a miniscule wax seal with the sender&#8217;s intial pressed into it, packaged up with a magnifying glass in a glassine envelope, and finished off with a large wax seal. The finished letter is just about the size of an American quarter, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/foxtongue\/4350870986\/\">almost a little bit smaller<\/a>. Tony was absolutely delighted to open the regular sized envelope and discover such a strange tiny gift inside. <\/p>\n<p>The miniscule envelope, not having anything to do with actual mailing practices, can be marked as anything you like, so I wrote out the smoochiest addresses I could think of, mailing it from Jhayne Holmes, Lover&#8217;s Court, Inamorata, L0V34, Valentia, and to Tony Jackson, #1 Beloved Blvd, suite: 2 serenade, Inamorato, H34R7, Valentia, something Tony got to read out to Michelle and her friend Kevin, who were over as he unwrapped it. <\/p>\n<p>Inside, it read;<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/foxtongue\/4350873698\/\" title=\"Tony opens his valentine from the World's Smallest Postal Service by Foxtongue, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4024\/4350873698_9a41b4d608.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Tony opens his valentine from the World's Smallest Postal Service\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><i>Now comes the long blue cold<br \/>\nby Mary Oliver, (with one word changed)<\/p>\n<p>Now comes the long blue cold<br \/>\nand what shall I say but that some<br \/>\nbird in the tree of my heart<br \/>\nis singing.<\/p>\n<p>That same heart that only yesterday<br \/>\nwas a room shut tight, without dreams.<\/p>\n<p>Isn\u2019t it wonderful\u2014the cold wind and<br \/>\nspring in the heart inexplicable.<br \/>\nDarling boy. Picklock.<\/p>\n<p>-:-<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s to closing in one one year together, to holding hands even when we&#8217;re sleeping. Here&#8217;s to finding love together and trust, truth, and beauty bombs. Here&#8217;s to you, my exquisite love, my Tony, my only. Happy Valentine&#8217;s. I love you, I love you, I love you. <\/p>\n<p>Jhayne<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Valentine&#8217;s is creeping up, the candy coated holiday founded on Lupercalia, a Roman parade festival celebrating sex and werewolves. It basically involved sacrificing a goat, wrapping the wet and bloody skin around you, then energetically racing naked around the city and cackling madly while smacking women with whips for pregnancy luck. Me, I just can&#8217;t &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/2010\/02\/11\/i-changed-the-word-girl-to-boy-and-theres-still-more-to-come\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;I changed the word girl to boy (and there&#8217;s still more to come)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[78,3,1328,146],"class_list":["post-3195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-presents","tag-relationships","tag-tony","tag-valentines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}