Some of Today's Outgoing: September 21, 2015

I can't believe I didn't notice earlier, but Fairy Godmother is totally enchanting that stamp.

Believe it or not, I've been sending TONS of mail out this weekend, and have failed to photographically document almost all of it.

Recently I've discovered a new snail mail website, Swap Bot, and am just barely getting my feet wet testing it out. I plan to post a more complete review when my research is complete. ;) The above letter is just one item from my five initial swaps I'm experimenting with. Because I'm a noob who has yet to establish a solid track record for coming through with swaps, I'm limited to participating in simple exchanges.

This weekend alone I've sent 8 postcards for Postcrossing, 5 Postcards detailing the highlight of my week for Swap Bot, 1 postcard featuring Colorado wildlife (also for Swap Bot), a full blown introductory pen pal letter to a stranger in New Zealand (assigned by Swap Bot, pictured above), and two more tourism themed postcard swaps to 4 more partners I plan to send tonight. Grand total: 19.

My Postcrossing Anniversary

Today I realized that I've been a member of Postcrossing just over one year! Hooray!


I can hardly believe it's been that long. So far I've collected 50 postcards!  The two that have traveled the farthest are from Indonesia and Russia. (It's hard to figure out exactly how far they've come. I'm not sure if Postcrossing calculates it by heading east or west.)

The lines on this map make me think of missiles more than postcards. Maybe if everyone did a little Postcrossing we could get by with fewer missiles. Or so I'll keep dreaming.

 The postcards kind of come in waves of two or three on the same day rather than a nice even one per week, but that really doesn't bother me. I've really enjoyed finding all these surprises and seeing more of the world this way. 9/10, highly recommend, would do again. ;)
I just can't believe snail mail has gone out of style. It's different than just online friends! Online I usually immediately block strangers who try to contact me. I don't like people snooping around in what feels like my private (albeit virtual) space. With snail mail the world is both bigger and smaller. The distance is more apparent when you consider how many days you check your box waiting for something before it finally arrives. Thinking about how many hands, trucks, planes etc a postcard comes into contact with on it's way to you makes the world feel very expansive. However, reading whatever little snippet of life people choose to share makes the world feel so small. We're all just people here, and we do a lot of the same things and have a lot of the same problems. I am so glad I've gotten to connect with so many people this way.  

Today's Outgoing: September 16, 2015

I'm afraid I smooshed Cathleen's face, but this is probably my favorite envelope of the moment.

Today's Outgoing: September 10, 2015

Quite a heap headed out today! Letters for Monica, Crystal and Ariel; and some super cute moving announcements for just about everyone else.

 

Today's Outgoing: September 2, 2015

Here's my first letter for my third missionary cousin Megan. She's in New Jersey and actually left earlier this summer. Oops! Better late than never?

 

Yesterday's Outgoing: August 31, 2015

Finally staring to catch up now that the move is over!