I recently joined Postcrossing, a neat postcard swapping site that lets people share postcards with strangers from all over the world. After sending off four postcards to various points on the globe (Russia, the Ukraine, Sweden and Taiwan, to be precise), I finally received my first card in return. It hails from the “evergroovy” state of Washington. Check it out:

I was also impressed by the stamps the sender chose, one of which was of author William Saroyan. Apparently, Saroyan’s advice to a young writer was “Try to learn to breathe deeply; really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell.” Good advice!

Here’s an image of his stamp:

He kind of resembles Einstein, doesn’t he?

Anyway, just wanted to share my first Postcrossing card with you. If any of you have an impulse to swap postcards, hit me up on Postcrossing and we can make arrangements. If you’re not on Postcrossing… what are you waiting for? Brighten up that mailbox and look forward to receiving messages instead of an endless parade of bills and junk mail!