Community

Though we live in a seemingly "paperless" world, for those who have a permanent residence, you are rewarded with a substantial amount of mail. Usually said mail comes in the form of bills, flyers, promotions and other seemingly useless pieces of waste. For Phil and I, living in Arcata and now at a permanent residence, we have also started receiving mail, but the funny and amazing thing is that a lot of our mail has come hand written. Yes, world, try this on for size:

The other day, I collected the pieces of mail that had been delivered to our box, flipping through the mail for house mates, until I came across a letter for us. The envelope was hand addressed, which confused me, since we really don't get that kind of mail. I was further perplexed when I saw that it was a letter from our bank.

Dear Nicola and Phil,
Thanks for coming in and opening a savings account with me! If you need anything, stop in and say hello. I hope you enjoy your toucan checks.

Yes, toucan checks. It was a Portlandia moment when we sat down to order checks and it went something like:

"Okay, now it is time to choose your checks for the account," the bank representative, Nico, stated.
"Sure," we replied.
"What are our options?" I asked.
"Well," said Nico, "you can get the standard checks, the checks with a thin border color, the checks with the bank emblem as the background, or there is one with a tropical toucan on the front."
I looked at Phil, considered his love of birds and said, "I think we need to choose the toucan ones."
Phil and I then made comments about how happy we would be writing checks with a toucan on the front.
"Oh," Nico hesitated, "it looks like the toucan checks cost a bit more than the regular ones."
"How much more?" Phil inquired.
Nico explained to us the additional cost and added, "it appears that the toucan checks are printed with soybean ink on recycled paper and a portion of the proceeds go toward rainforest preservation."
"Hmm," Phil mused, "can you tell us a little more about this toucan? Is he a suitable representative for this rainforest preservation campaign?"
"Oh, goodness!" I laughed.
Playing his part as devil's advocate, Phil asked, "is the toucan a part of the project or is he just a random toucan?"
"Now, I can't speak to the toucan's involvement in the non-profit..." Nico played along.
We all laughed and quoted Portlandia from that moment forward.

It was ridiculous and wonderful, but the best part was that we really enjoyed our time at the bank with the associate who always helps us. We then went to the local grocery store, where the same cashier shared in our usual banter as we collected our groceries. Finally, we drove five minutes from downtown, Arcata, to our home on the outskirts of town.

Yes, our town is small. Yes, we are getting to know everyone. And, yes, having a sense of community is easier in a place where the population is smaller, we live where we work, and we play where we live. However, I refuse to believe that we can't achieve that feeling of community no matter where we are.

It was lovely getting a note from the representative at our bank, but it isn't our first hand written note here - this is the second one we have been sent from a business in Arcata. It's quirky living in a place where this just happens. It made us laugh like crazy and feel like we had stubbled upon a secret, but here's the secret:

Interact. Engage. Connect.

Also, all of you who write me notes on Facebook after reading my blog posts...don't be shy...just follow/subscribe to my blog already. Community is everything.