I'm at home today, gray skies outside my apartment, working on thank you notes. The good news is that guest were generous were their gifts. The bad news is that I have to thank them.
I'm genuinely thankful, but I hate writing the same stuff over and over again. It reminds me of when I was a teaching assistant and wrote the same stupid comments on nearly every paper. After a while, you just want to switch to using single letter codes, and completely cut on the "caring teacher" aspect. How is it more caring to write fifteen words, repeatedly, than to use a a single letter that's explained at the class web site?
Anyway, now I'm filling out these thank you cards, and once again writing the same thing to every person, with a few jokes for those I know well. It's stupid. I'm grateful for the gifts, but the only message communicated by my thank you notes is that I thought your gift was worth a form letter. And since it's a form letter, why does it have to be handwritten? To prove it was a pain in the ass for me to send the thank you note?
The only good reason I've heard for thank you notes is that it lets the gift giver know that the gift was received, as isn't being routed by the USPS to Alaska, Mongolia, Orinda, or some other abysmal middle-of-nowhere place. That's a legitimate concern.
I think I should just be able to send a inkjet printed note to my wedding guests saying "Gift received. Don't worry about Mongolia. Thank you." That's all those people need to know.
Adam