I Think This Line's Mostly Filler

I really need to brainstorm some good blog topics so that I don't keep drawing blanks and having to rack my brain to come up with something. It's not that I never have anything to talk about, it's that I'm not writing things down when I think of them. Although lately the inspiration isn't striking me as often as it was a month or two ago. Perhaps my brain got tired of suggesting blog topics about which I did nothing.

Today, though, I thought I'd talk about Postcrossing. I started doing Postcrossing last month. You sign up with the website and provide it with your mailing address. You can create a profile where you can upload a photo and share info about yourself or talk about what kinds of postcards you'd most like to receive. Then you click "Send a Postcard," and you receive the information for someone else who's signed up with Postcrossing. When you first start out, you can send out 5 postcards. Then you wait for them to be received and registered on the website by the addressee. When a postcard that you've sent is registered, you can request info to send another. As the number of postcards you've sent adds up, the number you can have traveling at one time increases.

My first 5 postcards were sent to Finland, Spain, China, France and Germany. I've gotten 4 postcards back so far, from Finland (coincidence!), the Netherlands, Cincinnati and Yonkers, N.Y. I'm enjoying making connections across the country and around the world and seeing what postcards people use to send. My plan is to put the postcards in a photo album with 4x6 windows so that I don't end up shoving them in a drawer or putting them in a pile of papers somewhere, but can actually enjoy them again as snapshots from all over.

One caveat, though - although postcards mailed in the U.S. are only 28 cents, international postcards cost 98 cents to mail. Ouch. I'm planning to pace myself so this doesn't become a really expensive habit, but I think it's a fairly cheap hobby compared to many, and it's one that builds international goodwill to boot.