Tag Archives: mail

Sunday Notes and Letters for Week 17

Posted on April 19, 2015 | 1 comment
Me mailing the letter to Steve Carell from his hometown of Newton, MA. It was about 0 degrees when I snapped this photo.

I do have a lot of fun with the Year of Letters. Here’s a shot of me mailing a letter to Steve Carell from his hometown of Newton, MA on Day 7.

There are two things that are becoming very clear through doing the Year of Letters. The first is that if you are already pretty busy with work and you are writing a book, doing a blog that also involves writing is probably a terrible idea. My work on the book has definitely suffered from this project. It’s odd too, because I thought it would actually help me think creatively every day and sit me down to write.

I envisioned that it would take me 20-30 minutes every day to write the letter, take a quick photo and post everything, but you can probably double that time at a minimum. Maybe I’m just slow and inefficient. It often takes up to two hours to do everything involved with writing the letter and posting it online. I’m not complaining, just telling you how it is.

The other thing I learned is that something is really messed up down at the Post Office. Most of my letters go to places within the United States and I would estimate that the average letter takes one week to arrive. That in and of itself seems higher than I would have imagined. And on top of that some letters have taken nearly a month. Ironically a letter I sent to Finland arrived within a week – they seem to know what they are doing over there.

usps-Property-of-USPS-croppedLast week I received an undeliverable letter. It was a letter I sent on January 24th! It took nearly 3 months to be sent back to me. It was a letter to the manager at a FedEx Office in Ft. Lauderdale, FL – telling him how impressed I was with one of his employees. I know FedEx is a competitor to the USPS but come on, deliver their mail for crying out loud.

Anyway, as luck has it, I will be back in Ft. Lauderdale this week and my hotel happens to be across the street from this very FedEx location, so I will go hand deliver it myself. Ms. Postmaster, please be on the look out for my invoice to you for the delivery charges that I am incurring to deliver this letter on your behalf.

Stay tuned this week to hear what happens.

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Day 107: Laura

Posted on April 18, 2015 | Leave a comment

The other day I came home to find a manila envelope completely dominating the space in my tiny mailbox. It was hand addressed to me and had what seemed to be way more stamps on it than it probably needed – it wasn’t heavy, it was just larger than normal, about the size of a restaurant menu.

Day 107-2Inside it was a note from a friend of mine along with a small package of unrecognizable food and a dollar bill. The note said, “This dollar is yours to keep if you eat this dried fruit patty. Looks delicious….give it a try!”

Well, on one hand I was happy to have someone looking out for me and sending me nourishing food – on the other hand I was a bit skeptical of eating anything that involved me receiving money in exchange for eating it. I mean, why would you need to give me money to try something unless it was awful.

So imagine a small dense patty made up of semi-hard fruit bits. I didn’t just ease into it with  tiny nibble, I full committed and took a healthy bite. After the first bit made contact with my tongue I for some reason felt compelled to look at the packaging to see what the expiration date was. There was none. Nope, because this thing could last for centuries. I had to chew for quite a long time…it’s good practice if you’re trying to teach children to chew 20 times before they swallow. There’s a certain grittiness to it that I couldn’t quite discern and the ingredients didn’t list sawdust, so who knows what it was.

I’m keeping the dollar.

Oh, and if you want to send me things, go ahead. See if you can top the mystery fruit patty.

Day 107 

Dear Laura,

Thank you for taking the time to drop me a handwritten note in the mail. While a few people have sent me stationery, you have the distinct honor of being the first person to do two unique things with your letter.

The first is sending me food and the second is sending me money – both are things that I enjoy very much, so please accept my most sincere thanks. I am eating the mixed fruit snack as I write you this note (sorry if the paper got a bit sticky). I’m not sure I have ever had anything quite like it and I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Assuming I don’t fall deathly ill from the mixed fruit snack – we should find time to meet up. I miss you guys.

Reed

P.S. As per the terms of your note, I am holding on to the dollar.

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Day 99: Jami

Posted on April 10, 2015 | Leave a comment

Life is funny, isn’t it. For some reason I decided to write John Wilson yesterday. I had no idea that today was his wife’s birthday, but when I saw that this morning I knew I needed to drop her a letter today. After all, John gets plenty of attention, now it’s time to focus on Jami!

Day 99- Jami

Jami

Happy birthday Jami,

Day 99- Jami-2I woke up this morning and saw that it was your birthday and thought, today is Jami’s day. I thought it was incredibly coincidental that I decided to write John yesterday and then find out today was your birthday. It was meant to be. I miss you and Parker – OK, I miss John too. I enjoyed very much visiting with you when I was there in in 2012. I hope that we can all get together soon.

Have a great birthday.
Reed

P.S. I love the “attic lounge” – that space looks totally different!  

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Day 51: Ms. Brennan, US Postmaster General

Posted on February 20, 2015 | 2 comments

On this day in 1792, President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act which created the U.S. Postal Service and outlined the congressional power to establish mail routes. So, it seemed appropriate to write to our new Postmaster General. Megan Brennan took over the 500,000 employee organization on February 1st.

 

Day 51

Dear Ms. Brennan,

Congratulations on becoming the 74th, and first female, Postmaster General!

Today marks the 223rd anniversary of President George Washington signing the Postal Service Act into law and outlining the congressional power to establish mail routes in our country. In observance of this occasion, I took this opportunity to reflect on our postal system and the how it has changed in the recent years.

I’m just another one of your 300 million customers. That said, I’m responsible for generating at least one first class single piece mail item every day (you’re welcome). I know that’s not much when you consider the 513 million mail pieces that you deliver every day, but perhaps I can suggest a way to increase your first class single piece mail business.

Day 51I’ve committed to sending one handwritten letter every day for a year – you’re Day 51. Many people tell me that they have been inspired by my project to write more letters. This is a good thing for you. Now, my platform isn’t such that the ripples of my project alone are likely to make a noticeable difference for you, but from someone who specializes in helping organizations strategically use story to achieve business objectives, I see an opportunity for you to invest in nontraditional marketing efforts to fuel more of these kinds of endeavors. It’s not that Americans lack a desire to write and send letters, we lack inspiration. And inspiration can be created.

Just an idea. If you share my vision that an opportunity exists and want to explore this further, you know where to find me.

Sincerely,
Reed Sandridge

PS. I grew up “down the road” from you in Mechanicsburg.

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