Hello, work 👋🏼

Our final week on the Oregon Coast was spent ~working~

I had a wholesale order to finish up + mail out (you can now find MEA at Salchicha in Bozeman, MT!), wedding bands for my cousin’s wedding to finish up + mail out, and a super secret engagement ring to finish up + (you guessed it) mail out!

So lots of finishing up loose ends on projects and getting things squared away this week before a few weeks in Seattle.

We did go on a few walks on the beach, rest assured 🙌🏼

Saturday was spent deep cleaning, picking up take out, and driving to our campsite for the night — a (not so quiet) site in the depths of Washington logging country. There were a few folks enjoying the area for shooting practice and dirt biking, but at least our campsite was secluded from outside eyes + the view was pretty good (minus the bare logging areas).

We made the most of our travels to Seattle and replaced an i5 drive with a ($50 + 20 minute) ferry ride. According to my partner, the switch was worth it. I can’t argue with the view though —

Emerald City

Enter: Seattle — my childhood home, my college town, where I began Meghan Elisabeth Art, and where my parents currently reside. We came back into town for some family health stuff (as mentioned in last letter), but I’m coming a little early before all the madness begins to organize the pre-health stuff mayhem (does that make sense?)

Anyway, I’m in Seattle. My partner left with Bruce and Sadie (the high maintenance dog) to get the truck out of the city and Sadie off my parent’s wood floors. And so began the first week in Seattle! Sacha (the low maintenance dog) is with me as the residential ESA (emotional support animal) and she is working phenomenally in her role.

My Mom + I went to the Barbie movie (very good), we went blueberry picking (if you’re in the Tacoma area go to the Blueberry Park — it’s free to pick!), and my Dad has been taking Sacha on many *many* walks (and swims). I’ve been helping my Mom get her Kindergarten classroom ready for the school year, and getting all the honey-do items around the house checked off. I even snuck in a last-minute market for MEA!

To top it all off: it was Seafair weekend (which my parents happen to live in the epicenter of). If you’re not aware of Seafair, it’s a 3 day event in Seattle with boat races and air shows. Basically a show and tell of the US Air Force and Navy in a major metropolitan area. So it’s quite loud (very loud) and there are a *lot* of people (aka traffic), but the shows at least are cool (although I’ve seen them almost every year since before I can remember, so 🎶 it don’t impress me much 🎶 — joking, kind of).

So now you’re caught up! Next letter will be smack dab in the middle of *all* the health stuff, so it will be a full Q+A with a small life update. Send my family positive thoughts, love, and/or prayers in this next little bit of time 🫶🏼

But let’s get into a few Q+A questions to round out this letter:

Q+A

How does mail work on the road?

There are a lot of ways you can get mail on the road, but this is how we do it! It is by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s what we’ve found to work well.

Permanent Address

First thing to cover is our permanent address. Obviously, our house is not permanent. So we use my parent’s address as our permanent address! All of our taxes, bills, checks, voting ballots, and spam mail gets sent to them, along with any packages we deem unnecessary for immediate delivery. When we visit, we pick up our mail! Anything important they send to us on the road through general delivery.

General Delivery

General delivery is how we get most of our mail. It’s available through the United States Postal Service and it’s actually pretty easy! The only problem with it is that you have to know where you’ll be in 1-2 weeks 🙃 It works best in smaller towns because there’s only one post office (so you know exactly where your package will be). If you want more info/ the exact details on this, let me know — I’d be happy to divulge the details but they’d be boring to most people 😅

Amazon Lockers

Another really easy way to get mail is through Amazon Lockers! The extra big downside: they’re only available in highly populated areas, and they’re sometimes full. We’re not usually in areas with Amazon lockers, so this route is rare for us to take.

UPS + FedEx

General delivery is only reliable when shipping through USPS, so if you need a package shipped through UPS or FedEx, you’ll have to use their version of general delivery. Basically it works the same as USPS’ general delivery, you just pick up at a UPS or FedEx store!

Ship to Store

The final way we’ve ordered stuff online is with shipping to a store. You’ll obviously have to plan a route with that store on the way, but it’s usually free to ship and easy to pick up!

A go-to recipe

Dropping a recipe that I wouldn’t even qualify as a recipe it’s that easy. This is my go-to breakfast on the road because it takes one dish and can be cooked in 3 minutes!

You’ll need:

vegetable oil
2-3 eggs
1-2 corn tortillas
chiles (optional)
salt + pepper
your favorite salsa
1/4 avocado (optional)

Obviously you can cater the amount of each ingredient to your appetite too! This is just what typically fills me up.

Rip up the corn tortillas into bite sized pieces. Add vegetable oil to pan and place tortillas in one layer. Turn heat to medium high. Flip tortilla pieces once they begin to crisp up (~ 1 minute). After ~30 seconds, add eggs and turn off heat. Mix eggs into a scramble (add chiles here if you’d like). Turn heat on again if needed to fully cook eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste. Move to plate or bowl to eat, serve with your favorite salsa + some avocado!

I’ve been making this breakfast for years and haven’t grown sick of it! Let me know if you like it (:

Next letter

Full-blown Q+A!

Add a comment or send me a message if you have a question you’d like answered! Be sure to subscribe as well if you’d like to be notified when the letter goes live 🙃

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And as always, thanks for reading 💕

There's much more to it but those were my favorite parts