Life and Stuff
Sep. 12th, 2017 08:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse Yesterday was a fun mail day.
One of the very best parts of being a member of the International Pen Friends (IPF) is that, occasionally, the postal carrier delivers FIVE personal letters, all addressed to you. Two of them were from my regular Canadian pen friend. She's an actual friend who became a pen pal, and her letters are always a delight. We didn't actually know each other terribly well when we started corresponding, but we knew each other from exchanges in Bleach fandom. She's a lot like my friend in Seattle, who I knew passably before we started corresponding (she was a writing student of mine) and we've become closer thanks to years of letter writing. I got my Seattle pen friend by asking Facebook for volunteers.
Of the other letters that arrived were:
1. A letter from Malta. MALTA, you guys. The other nifty thing about my Maltese correspondent is that she got my name not from IPF, but from one of the various FBs that I've participated in. I had genuinely never HEARD of Friendship Books until one of my German pen pals, Petra, introduced me to them. I still think they're kind of weird. Just slips of paper or homemade booklets with people's addresses in them and odd codes. Seriously, SNNP (sorry no new pen pals) and NPW (new pen pals wanted) that are passed in the mail a little like a chain letter, without the pressure, because you can always return it to the original sender.
But, Malta, that's cool. I hope my reply entices another from her.
2. I seem to have finally snagged a correspondent from the UK. You would not think this would be SO hard. English/UK addresses easily make up a third of what's on offer for an English-speaker like myself on any given IPF list. Yet, despite faithfully writing to all of them, I have only ever gotten one previous reply from anyone in England and that was a "rejection." Somehow, I seem to have passed muster with someone there finally. Fingers crossed this winning streak continues. Interestingly, in my grand experiment of "should I come out right away or not?" in the introduction letter I sent this one (Kate) I decidedly did NOT. So, I should probably return to my strategy of, "wait until they know you pretty well before you reveal that you're a big, old butch lesbian." I already took a chance revealing to Kate that I'm an otaku. Let's see if I can weather that storm!
3. The last one was also a new IPF member, this one from France. I have a couple of other French correspondents, but they seem to have slowed down. The thing about IPF is that it's like any kind of blind matching site. Even when you're willing to try anyone, some people click better than others. This is why I sprang for a half-year renewal because I wanted another list so that I could keep throwing out feelers.
Anyway, I know all of this stuff is likely only really fascinating to me. I have always been interested in other people's lives and this is a fun way for me to explore that. I was writing to my Maltese pen pal last night explaining how I got into pen palling. I have discovered that many of the people who are in IPF have been members since they were teenagers. It's a hobby that they've kept all their lives, unlike me. I hunted up IPF because I remembered being assigned a pen pal in 4th grade or thereabouts. There was a time in the 1970s when pen palling was kind of the 'it' hobby, particularly among teenage girls. At least, that's how it seemed to me back then, at any rate. I wasn't into it then, though the idea intrigued me. I was a fairly terrible correspondent, too, when I did have the opportunity, probably because I imagined that somehow I would have an instant foreign friend, with whom I could share the secrets of my soul, etc., etc. In 1970, I would have killed for a French pen pal. Instead I got someone from Japan. Ironically, I found that annoying at the time. Japan? Who's even heard of it? Why is this girl sending me all this crap with a weird kitty on it??
Ah, things that are wasted on the young, eh?
I wrote a lot of letters to friends and family when I was in college. To be fair, that was how we communicated before the internet, but I have always liked the feel of pen on paper. There is something, too, about sharing your thoughts with just one person at a time. Obviously, you can still do that with private messaging and e-mail, but a letter is more sensual--in that it appeals to all the senses.
Plus, shit shows up in the mail. I love when shit shows up in the mail. Did I mention I got 5 letters yesterday??? FIVE!
One of the very best parts of being a member of the International Pen Friends (IPF) is that, occasionally, the postal carrier delivers FIVE personal letters, all addressed to you. Two of them were from my regular Canadian pen friend. She's an actual friend who became a pen pal, and her letters are always a delight. We didn't actually know each other terribly well when we started corresponding, but we knew each other from exchanges in Bleach fandom. She's a lot like my friend in Seattle, who I knew passably before we started corresponding (she was a writing student of mine) and we've become closer thanks to years of letter writing. I got my Seattle pen friend by asking Facebook for volunteers.
Of the other letters that arrived were:
1. A letter from Malta. MALTA, you guys. The other nifty thing about my Maltese correspondent is that she got my name not from IPF, but from one of the various FBs that I've participated in. I had genuinely never HEARD of Friendship Books until one of my German pen pals, Petra, introduced me to them. I still think they're kind of weird. Just slips of paper or homemade booklets with people's addresses in them and odd codes. Seriously, SNNP (sorry no new pen pals) and NPW (new pen pals wanted) that are passed in the mail a little like a chain letter, without the pressure, because you can always return it to the original sender.
But, Malta, that's cool. I hope my reply entices another from her.
2. I seem to have finally snagged a correspondent from the UK. You would not think this would be SO hard. English/UK addresses easily make up a third of what's on offer for an English-speaker like myself on any given IPF list. Yet, despite faithfully writing to all of them, I have only ever gotten one previous reply from anyone in England and that was a "rejection." Somehow, I seem to have passed muster with someone there finally. Fingers crossed this winning streak continues. Interestingly, in my grand experiment of "should I come out right away or not?" in the introduction letter I sent this one (Kate) I decidedly did NOT. So, I should probably return to my strategy of, "wait until they know you pretty well before you reveal that you're a big, old butch lesbian." I already took a chance revealing to Kate that I'm an otaku. Let's see if I can weather that storm!
3. The last one was also a new IPF member, this one from France. I have a couple of other French correspondents, but they seem to have slowed down. The thing about IPF is that it's like any kind of blind matching site. Even when you're willing to try anyone, some people click better than others. This is why I sprang for a half-year renewal because I wanted another list so that I could keep throwing out feelers.
Anyway, I know all of this stuff is likely only really fascinating to me. I have always been interested in other people's lives and this is a fun way for me to explore that. I was writing to my Maltese pen pal last night explaining how I got into pen palling. I have discovered that many of the people who are in IPF have been members since they were teenagers. It's a hobby that they've kept all their lives, unlike me. I hunted up IPF because I remembered being assigned a pen pal in 4th grade or thereabouts. There was a time in the 1970s when pen palling was kind of the 'it' hobby, particularly among teenage girls. At least, that's how it seemed to me back then, at any rate. I wasn't into it then, though the idea intrigued me. I was a fairly terrible correspondent, too, when I did have the opportunity, probably because I imagined that somehow I would have an instant foreign friend, with whom I could share the secrets of my soul, etc., etc. In 1970, I would have killed for a French pen pal. Instead I got someone from Japan. Ironically, I found that annoying at the time. Japan? Who's even heard of it? Why is this girl sending me all this crap with a weird kitty on it??
Ah, things that are wasted on the young, eh?
I wrote a lot of letters to friends and family when I was in college. To be fair, that was how we communicated before the internet, but I have always liked the feel of pen on paper. There is something, too, about sharing your thoughts with just one person at a time. Obviously, you can still do that with private messaging and e-mail, but a letter is more sensual--in that it appeals to all the senses.
Plus, shit shows up in the mail. I love when shit shows up in the mail. Did I mention I got 5 letters yesterday??? FIVE!
no subject
Date: 2017-09-12 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-16 06:23 am (UTC)Another mail option is to get into Mail Art, but that's less conversational (AIUI). It's good to know that pen pals are still a thing, an ongoing thing.