Author Archives: Reed Sandridge

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 106: Kristen

Posted on April 17, 2015 | Leave a comment

Have you ever served on a home owners association board? I did it for three years and can tell you that it can be a thankless job – and that’s not even the right word since you don’t get a dime for all of your hard work.

I’m fortunate to have a great president of our condo association. I ran into her earlier this week and it reminded me that I should send her a note telling her how much I appreciate her service. Do you know someone who is volunteering their time for the benefit of others? Drop them a note to let them know you appreciate them.

Day 106

Kristen,

It was nice running into you earlier this week. I wanted to drop you a note to let you know how much I, and surely others in the building, appreciate your leadership on the condo board. I know how much time and effort you put into it.

Thank you!
Reed

P.S. I really would like to find time for dinner or drinks. Are you and Kevin around the next two weeks?

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Day 105: Domi Sanchez y Familia

Posted on April 16, 2015 | Leave a comment

Valladolid-spain-mapSpring semester of my junior year in college I studied abroad in Valladolid, Spain. A mostly industrial town in the northwest of Spain, Valladolid is quintessential Castilla y Leon. The Spanish spoken here does fair justice to its heritage and arguably is the heart of this beautiful country.

I lived with a nice family who regularly took in exchange students. Their 6th floor apartment was just across the Pisuerga River from the downtown. It sounds far, but I walked to the city center every day to go to class.

I lost touch with the family but this spring marks 20 years since my stay there and I figured it was about time to find them. I knew I had kept a letter from their oldest son, Pako (yes, spellcheck, he spelled it with a “k”), which I had received about a year after returning to the U.S. I found it this morning and decided to drop them a letter. Hopefully they still live in the same place.

I’ve translated the letter below.

Day 105-4

I included a recent photo of me with my Dad.

 

Dear Domi,

I hope that this letter finds you well. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in touch – I’m lazy to write and even more so in Spanish.

When I finished my University studies I moved to Washington, DC. There is more opportunity to find work here and it’s also very close to my brother (and his wife and two daughters). My father still lives in Pennsylvania – in the same house where I lived as a child. My mother died in 2006 – she had heart trouble for many years – even before I stayed with you.

Day 105-3-2

Pako’s letter from 2006

I haven’t gotten married and don’t have any kids that I am aware of 🙂  I have a consulting company that helps people and companies improve their strategic communication. I used to travel a lot, especially to Latin America – I lived in Brazil for three yeas from 2003-2005. I’ve been back to Spain – but just to Madrid and Barcelona for work.

How are you all doing? Mr. Manuel, Pako, Manolo? I’ve tried from time to time to find you all on the internet but failed. This morning I found a letter that Pako wrote to me in 1996 and it had your address – I had forgotten it.

Well, I hope that you are all well. It would be a great to hear back from you.

A big hug,
Jason Reed Sandridge

P.S. Sorry for my Spanish – I don’t get to practice it much anymore and I’m forgetting it.

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Day 104: Anonymous letter left in DC Starbucks

Posted on April 15, 2015 | 1 comment
Writing my letter at Starbucks.

Writing my letter at Starbucks.

April 15th means it’s the deadline to file your taxes. Well, not really. You can file for an extension. Anyway, it is understandable that today could be a bit depressing as you think about how much money you are handing over to the government so I thought I would try to do something nice for a stranger.

I left this letter at the Starbucks at the corner of 22nd and K Street in Washington DC. Inside I tried something different – I put a $5 gift card. It’s not much, but perhaps it will lift their spirits if they’re having a bad day.

I added the quote by Paula Poundstone – I thought it was funny and I met her a few years ago. She was great. I hope that starting out my note with “The wages of sin” doesn’t scare away the person who finds this by causing them to think that I’m some nut lurking across the Starbucks who is going to come up to them later and start preaching to them.

Day 104 anonymous

“The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it’s just sort of a tired feeling.” – Paula Poundstone

 

Hopefully you’re not feeling too tired today…but in case you are, have some coffee on me. As we “celebrate” tax day – I hope this small letter and gift will help make your day a happy one.

Enjoy!

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