south of the loop

Postcrossing postcard received 08 April 2010.

About two months ago, I signed up for something called Postcrossing. The premise is simple: send postcards, get postcards. Who doesn’t want to get postcards in their mailbox every week? When you first sign up, you can request up to five addresses, which are picked from hundreds of thousands of Postcrossing users across the world, and away you go.

Postcrossing gives you a unique ID to write on each postcard. When the postcard is received, the recipient logs on to Postcrossing.com and registers the postcard. That moves your address to the top of the list, and the next person who requests an address will get yours. Each time one of your postcards is received, you can request another address. Pretty cool, huh?

The site has so far worked seamlessly, and I’ve sent and received nearly equal numbers of postcards. The Finnish, oddly enough, have the largest number of postcrossers, and so I’ve gotten four from their fair country (which has some of the best postage stamps ever). I’ve sent postcards to Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, China, and Taiwan, and received them from India, Hong Kong, and even Louisiana (you can opt out of sending and receiving postcards from within your own country if you wish).

I was a bit nervous about the cost when I first signed up. Postcrossing.com itself is completely free, but of course international postage is $0.98 a pop, which can add up pretty quickly. But because you can only have five cards traveling at a time, it’s nicely paced out, and I generally don’t send more than one or two cards a week. (I’m also using it as an excuse to use up my old $0.37 and $0.39 stamps, of which there are many). And you don’t have to have five cards traveling at once, though I dare you not to get addicted.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get yourself some awesome mail.

If you’re interested, you can view my profile and my postcards.

*          *          *

current socks: black with light purple and blue argyle

current music: Longpigs, The Sun is Often Out

current Netflix: Coraline and the seventh season of Monk

Filed under: letters, mail art by ellembee
1 Comment »

In today’s adventures in letter-writing, I bring you two more pieces of magazine-enveloped mail:

Sorry for the terrible lighting. One of these days I’ll start using my proper camera for these snapshots. The second piece of mail, to my running buddy Leslee, contains the best-worst postcard in all of London. Behold!

Do you want something fun in your mailbox? Of course you do. Sign up here and help me use the powers of the postal service for good.

*          *          *

current book: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

current Netflix: Peep Show, an outrageously funny British comedy. Watch it.

current music: A free CD I got at Kieran Hebdan’s December gig at Plastic People. Pretty sure it’s a DJ set from another of his gigs; the front of this CD just says “Four Tet – Much love to the Plastic People – DJ mix – December 2009.”

Filed under: letters by ellembee
3 Comments »

As anybody who’s ever gotten mail from me knows, I love to send fun mail. What I lack in artistic talent, I make up for in stickers and colored markers and fun stamps.

Recently inspired by some activity on Twitter (blatantly stolen from the brilliant @leahjones, let’s be honest) as well as some newly discovered blogs devoted to mail art, I’m stepping it up. (See especially Time After Tea and Stationery Addicted for inspiration). I am going to try to send one letter a week, and you, my readership of ten, are the lucky recipients. I’ll post pictures here of the mail a week after I send it, so as not to spoil the mailbox surprise for anybody.

If you want in on the action, please add your name and address to this form. I will do my very best to include strangers and international recipients. I promise neither the profound nor magnificent, but I will try to brighten your day with something addressed just to you.

To kick things off, I’m posting pictures of a little note I wrote to a friend who I’m pretty sure doesn’t check this blog regularly. I made the envelope from an ad in a magazine, which I folded using Angry Chicken’s guidance. That’s a Peanuts Valentine’s sticker on the back.

UPDATE: Yes, even if I know you personally and you are positive I have your address, please still use the form. It’ll help me keep track of everything.

Filed under: letters, mail art by ellembee
6 Comments »

I finally got back to Chicago today and collected two weeks’ worth of mail. Among the Christmas cards was a plain white #10 envelope addressed to me in a neat, all-caps hand. The return address is from “Halpert” on Ellsworth St. in Naperville. Odd, since I don’t think I know anybody in Naperville. Nor anybody named Halpert.

I opened the letter and found a two-page faux-typed “Christmas” letter (including a faux water ring on the back). I scanned both pages, which are below—you’ll have to click on them to enlarge, but I beg you to do so. The letter itself is pretty funny, but I have NO IDEA who sent it to me. (I don’t have a home phone, so my address isn’t listed). The return address on the actual letter is my work address (sans suite number), which is… coincidental? creepy? weird? Please, for the love of all things holy, if you sent this to me, let me know. It’s driving me crazy.

If you need further persuasion to enlarge and read, here’s the second paragraph for you:

To begin at the beginning. Many of you will have heard that, while walking home from mailing our holiday missive in early December 2006, I was struck in the temple by an Audi. Servilia and the kids feared the worst, and their fears were confirmed when I survived. I’ve long believed that there is something positive to learn from even the darkest event. However, I have been very, very wrong. Getting hit by an Audi is an uniformly bad thing.

Filed under: letters, weird by ellembee
7 Comments »