Bonjour mes amies! If the number of emails and formspring questions I’ve gotten in the past week are any indication, a lot of you are worried that I never got your pen pal requests or that Autostraddle Air Mail isn’t happening any more. That is so not the case! In the interest of keeping y’all in the loop/quelling any anxiety I might’ve caused, I wrote you a poem in the style of William Carlos Williams.
UPDATE: If you’re still looking to join, jump on over to this survey and you’re in, baby!
This is just to say
I have gotten
your emails
that contain
your vital stats
and which
you were probably
hoping
to receive responses to last week
Forgive me
there are 865 of you (!)
so it’s taking longer
than I expected
Before you go!
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Laura is a tiny girl who wishes she were a superhero. She likes talking to her grandma on the phone and making things with her hands. Strengths include an impressive knowledge of Harry Potter, the ability to apply sociology to everything under the sun, and a knack for haggling for groceries in Spanish. Weaknesses: Chick-fil-a, her triceps, girls in glasses, and the subjunctive mood. Follow the vagabond adventures of Laura and her bike on twitter [@laurrrrita].
Laura has written 308 articles for us.
865!!!!!!
And an ODD number! Dun-dun-duuuuuuuunnnn.
You could say it’s a bit queer!
I’m happy to take the extra person! Because after tomorrow, after 2 years of brutal, relentless studying, I AM FINISHED MY EXAMS AND CAN SPEND ALL MY TIME WRITING LETTERS.
Also, 865 is a lot. So many gay letters in the post :P
Woah, I was waiting until I was living somewhere permanently before signing up for this.
Now I am concerned there will be no-one left to write to…
Oh wait, I CAN TAKE THE ODD PERSON !
You can write to me, as I’m also waiting until I have a permanent address!
Hey Laura, when are we doing that whole Autostraddle Friends With Benefits thing? I’ve been a bit out of touch and worried I might have missed the post.
AUTOSTRADDLE APP
find the nearest single-straddler.
STRADDLR
Oh Digger, your comments always have a way of making me smile on the rainiest days of my depressing summer :)
So I can add you to the FWB list then?
DTF FTW! ;)
This makes me feel a lot better! For some weird reason I was anxious that my stats weren’t good enough and so I didn’t get to be part of this. But now I’m excited again!
Yay! I can’t wait to get writing.
lady homos have the power to save the postal service from budget cuts!
Yay! You are saving my job. <3!
Is it too late to sign up? I wasn’t sure where I would be living until recently and now I fear I will be missing out on supergay penpal times. :(
Yes please, me too, please please please!
If it is too late, you can just write to me! I’m super cool, I promise. :D
I just sent in my info yesterday and it wasn’t too late so I’d go for it
I would’ve joined but postage costs from Hawaii to the mainland are just ridiculous :|
Well maybe you can ask to be matched with someone from Hawaii? Surely you’re not the only one.
I know it’s too late to sign up so I just sent an email and I really really really hope there is a spot for me because I really want to be a part of this!
This is the appropriate moment to say: pretty please with a cherry on top!!! :)
This is incredible and awesome! Hey, maybe I could write to a couple of ladies so I could send 2-3 letters at a time instead of just 1.
Maybe now I will check the mailbox more often than once a week. :)
# whatbills
Wow! And I e-mailed Laura to ask if there wasn’t enough people signed up to do this anymore… ha!
Can I still sign up?
Jeeze, the things you guys do for us. I feel like as well as the regular donations there should be a ‘you work way too hard, have a whiskey on us’ fund.
Also, way excited to find out who my pen pal is!
yes, you should have a whiskey/drink of choice on us! I’m unable to cope with more than 5 mails in my inbox.
you should totes expose your mail address so we could send 865 thank-you notes
What?! Pen Pal requests?? How did I not know about this sooner?! Is it too late to sign up?
Thanks for putting this all together, Laura! I am really looking forward to this.
heck yes, with that william carlos williams.
i often write parody notes of this poem for friends.
I am so excited!!! Also, wow 865?! Way beyond my expectations, there are so many of us, love it!!
I want to sign up. I love writing letters. I have calligraphy pens! How to join?
How exciting!!! this absolutely made my day, can’t wait! :D
I’d love to sign up too! (I dare say you’ll easily end up with a thousand gladies at this rate.)
So is there anything we can do to help? It sounds like a lot of work to do all on your own.
I love this poem, almost as much as I loved the plums you left in the icebox (they were delicious).
I hope i’m not too late to sign up! If any of you want a Irish exile living in London type penpal I’m your gal :-)
Go here to sign up! :)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dFlOejl6LU5iUU5nU1ZXRFBIMTNGNXc6MQ
Thanks, Morgan!
HOLY WOW.
Please tell me I didn’t send my address to a random email. :P Either way I’m really excited!
Is this still happening? It’s been over a month since the last update, and I haven’t heard anything back after filling out the google form :<
I came here to ask the same thing!
Oh, thank goodness it’s not just me! I thought i’d been somehow missed off the list, and everyone else was having sparkly letter awesomeness xD
yeah I wonder when my mailbox will be filled with rainbows and unicorns and glitter!
I was afraid that the strict regulations of the german postal service kept me from recieving letters. now there is still hope for a letterbox filled with glittery rainbowstraddling unicorns :) yay!
I know it’s a little late… but is there any chance to still get in on this? or will there be another go round?
Blast me for being late to read this, but is there any way to still do this? I clicked the survey link, but it was non-functioning.
CAN WE DO THIS AGAIN?!?!
Yo so I just realized that this was a thing and if there was another round of sign-ups and penpal distributions and things that’d be awesome because I’d be all over that like sand on a beach towel.