So, I got to thinkin’. I really like mail. Like, REALLY like mail. I have a thing for paper, and the site of a pretty envelope in my mailbox fills me with joy. Packages are great, but a real card or letter? The best.
Plus, I love a chance to practice my penmanship. I have horrid handwriting, but I like to try and do better. It’s less part of a noble quest to better myself and more a deep-seated compulsion dating back from when I got an F in Handwriting in 1st grade and it traumatized me. Plus, they made me use those stupid finger molds on my pencils to “correct” the way I held it and just succeeded in creating someone with bad handwriting who holds writing utensils weird and has a giant callus on her ring finger. Thanks, Texas education system….
Anyway. I was thinking about mail the other day, and how fun it is to get a letter, and I decided that I wanna start a little pen pal club on Kind of a Mess. Nothing huge, but just a way for people to sign up if they want to, get mail and find a use for the pretty stationery you keep buying but never use. (That CAN’T be just me.)
Here’s how it’ll work:
- Email me at alyssa dot kindofamess at gmail dot com with your address. (Physical or PO box, doesn’t matter.)
- Once I get a good amount, I’ll randomly pair you up with someone. (Let me know if you aren’t willing to have someone outside your own country.)
- Then, I’ll give a few prompting topics and you’ll mail your letter! (You can send goodies if you want, but it HAS to fit in a regular letter envelope.)
- Then, if it doesn’t suck and everyone likes it, we’ll do it again next month with new people! If you want to keep writing to your penpals, it’s up to you, but there’s no obligation to do so. It’s kind of the point, but not everyone gets excited about stuff like this and wants to keep doing it. And that’s okay!
So, what do you think? Lame? Fun? A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B? Alyssa, you have too much crap going on and this is a BAD idea?
Image from Brainless Tales.
Kind of a Mess 
I like it! Although, if you have too much crap to do, STOP.
Yes! I really like it, but if you need to ask someone for help with it, or not do it with your busy life, that’s more than okay.
I like it too!
oh and I just saw this article pop up today, handwriting! it’s good for you! http://www.apa.org/news/psycport/PsycPORTArticle.aspx?id=krt_2011_06_22_knigt_8079-0018-FAM-SELF-GOOD-HANDWRITING.TB.ew.xml
good for you if you’re a little kid. I’m gonna go ahead and make the leap that it’s good for us too.
Me, too! I want in!
This is such a fun idea! I don’t actually have a permanent address right now, but hopefully it’s still going on next month when I’ll have a mailbox of my own.
This is super fantastic. I want in 🙂
I do agree with ElfPuddle and Jo, though.
Thanks, you guys! I do have a lot going on, but I think if I got better at time managment I’d be fine. (The internet is so distracting!!)
Plus, this is a fun thing! I’m totally doing it too, I want mail!!!
Especially mail that isn’t junk or bills!
This free sharing of infaormiton seems too good to be true. Like communism.
[This is spam, but I can’t bear to delete it due to unintentional awesome. It’s inspired me to add “Like communism” to the end of every opinion I have. It’s great!
Like communism.
~Alyssa ]
I love it too!
Yeah, that sounds fun! I like the one-time commitment too. I’m afraid I might be a bad long-term penpal but I can definitely handle one letter.
We’re still apartment-hunting and thus address-less soon, so I’ll wait for the next go-round!
Oo, count me in if you decide to do it! So fun!
Oh my goodness I’d love to do this. You are awesome Alyssa. And you’re not the only one with a stack of unused pretty stationary. Oh, you didn’t say stack of? My bad. I also love the one time commitment.
Yes, yes, mail, mail. I am hesitating a bit, as I feel perhaps my real life far-off friends could use a letter before I go galavanting about, writing to strangers. But, maybe this will get me going in the letter writing department. I’m in.
Huh. Look how it posts your full name when you log in through Facebook. Look how you can’t delete it. I am so tech savvy. Dang.
I’m totally tech savvy, so I fixed it. I got ur back. 🙂
(Don’t tell anyone, but the first two comments still link to Facebook and display Anna’s full name, or part of it (it’s in the URL).)
Sweet. Annd, I remembered how to use Gravatar. Okay, we are back on track.
Yep! Count me in!
Yay! Send me your address…
I WANT IN. i LOVE mail. i love it so much i got those “return address” sticker that everyone in the US seems to have and no one has in the UK and i will NOT MOVE AGAIN until i have used all 280 of them.
please can i be in?
YAY! Email me your address…
If I hadn’t already signed up to do the Elevated Envelope project (http://blog.ephemera-press.com/2011/06/29/lets-get-elevated/) I would so be in! I love mail and love writing letters. Adult pen pals are the best.
I want to do it, too! Like others, I like that it’s possible to just do it once. I might get around to keeping up with it, but I would feel bad if I promised to and then didn’t follow through.
I even have half a box left of cool notecards that I received for my high school graduation (*ahem* 11 years ago). They’re pretty and will make someone happy when they get them in the mail!
Fun! I think we had similar ideas at the same time! I found this link through my blog (Ephemera) linked above. I’d love to join your exchange – feel free to check out mine as well (sign up by 7/8)!
Hi nice reading youur blog