Postcrossing Self-Spotlight

On the Postcrossing blog they occasionally feature one lucky participant for a brief interview of four set questions. It's interesting to see who else is doing this stuff, and I like the general concept of the spotlight because it makes a user feel special.

However, never in a hundred years will I be selected for this spotlight--one of my superpowers is the passive ability to disappear from lists, which really hurt me in elementary school but served me well in the military (only had to pull KP twice in seven years). So I'm going to profile myself in an extraneous off-site spotlight.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I was looking for pen pals on Facebook and I found a postcard exchange group. It wasn't working very well, as people would show up demanding cards but never responded to anyone else's ads, and when I tried to write to them they failed to respond to me. Eventually a couple avid collectors (Davide in Italy, Katrin in Germany) suggested I try out Postcrossing. I signed up immediately and have been thrilled with the service it provides.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I used to be very into drinking, which isn't a very interesting hobby to other people until I got to scotch. The story of where scotch is brewed, the history behind each distillery, the conflict of copyright, royalty, politics, and family intrigue is just fascinating! I've also been practicing calligraphy just to help me tidy up my own handwriting. I don't know when or why they stopped teaching penmanship in school, but now we have college graduates and business owners whose handscript looks like the scrawl of a child. Finally, I (intermittently) run several blogs dedicated to photography, fiction, memoir, and stationery.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!


The first shot is of a postal clerk with whom I've done much business. I would have liked to have gotten a shot of my three or four favorite workers, since the guys who work at this station are just a pack of cards, but they were working and such a request was impractical. They joke around and keep each other upbeat, and even if they're having a bad day they are always at very least polite.

The second picture is my favorite post office, the Loop Station. We have a main post office in Downtown, too, but I can't speak to its efficiency. All I know is that this place delivers mail faster than I would've thought possible. If I can drop off a Netflix selection in the mail here before noon, it will arrive at its destination and be processed within 20 hours. When I write to my friend in Madison, WI, she gets my letter the next day.

Finally, this is one of the postal carriers who delivers to my apartment (I estimate at least three carriers share this neighborhood). I don't know much about him, I just wanted to include his picture. He's relatively good-humored and patient, as I tried to take his picture before but my battery had died, so this is the only successful shot after a few false starts. Also, it's no treat to deliver snow in sub-zero weather with a couple feet of snow on the ground, so kudos to him for his hard work in difficult conditions.

Here are some of the postcards I've received.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I've received many fantastic postcards, but this is among my favorites; indeed, this is what leaps to mind when I start to think of my best loved postcards. It's a profile of a castle overlooking the Yellow River in Shenzhen, China. The landscape is rugged, vast and breathtaking, and the castle on the cliff is incredibly romantic. This image touches on the grandeur affected by so many Hong Kong directors in their period dramas and action films. They're so in love with their own nation, it's beautiful to witness their testimony to their pride and affection. When I look at an image like this, I can easily understand that level of passion.