Hey LEP members! Are you on Swap-bot? Then you might want to check out LEP's superhero-themed postcard swap! Deadline for signing up is January 30.
Be sure to sign up and get two superhero postcards in your mailbox!
EXPOSED: Sushi and the Squirrel
So, you might be curious as to how two bloggers became Super Sushi and
Super Squirrel. (For the record: no, we didn't fall into a vat of
radioactive liquid.) For example, you might be interested to learn that
Julie and Laura have never spoke on the phone. Not once! But yet, LEP
still came together as if conjured out of thin air (again, for the
record: it didn't. We're superheroes, not magicians unfortunately). So
we thought we'd tell you the story of how LEP came to be, because the
origin story of a superhero penpal club should be documented somewhere,
don't you think?
However, we're going to tell you the story each from our own
perspective. This way, you can see how our styles differ and complement
each other. It's also to compare our experiences to see if we remember
things the same way. Then, if Laura starts talking about dinosaurs
somewhere, Julie can politely mention that Laura suffers from weird
dinosaur-related delusions. Also, if Julie starts going on about sushi,
Laura can politely mention that Julie remembers things in Sushi Surround
Sound.
Everyone ready? Let's go!
The story so far (told from Super Sushi's point of view):
When I was around 9 years old, I had my first penpal. By the time I
was 11, writing letters had become my favorite hobby. My early teenage
years were spent with a pen in my hand and a dream in my head: someday, I
would manage a penpal club. However, the Internet wasn't available in
the early 90s and by the end of high school, reality kicked in: I had
to go to college, choose a field of studies and eventually get a job.
Fast
forward 10 years, when I had just had my son and needed an income to
stay home with him. Around that time, I started designing stationery and
opened my first online shop. A few years later, my second stationery
shop (La Papierre)
was born. I even started blogging, interviewing letter writers and
posting penpal ads. But it wasn't until a couple of years later, one
fateful evening of December, that an idea popped up in my mind: what if I
started the penpal club I had always dreamed about? Yes, now I could!
But wouldn't it be a lot of work for one single person? Who would be
crazy enough to start this project with me?! My dear penpal Laura the
Squirrel, of course! And boy did I choose the perfect partner: so far
Laura has been doing all the dirty work while I sip cocktails on the
beach... (Oh, how I wish that were true!)
No,
this partnership has actually been a real
collaboration. Though I'm usually one step ahead of Laura, she usually
ends up outsmarting me. Working together involves dozens of daily emails
(about newsletter templates and facial hair), dream meetings on
colorful clouds (ideally accompanied by ketchup chips, sushi and pina
coladas, or sometimes massive amounts of tequila, when we've had an
especially tough day) and a good dose of telepathy. We are superheroes
after all.
Super
Squirrel is an amazing friend and business partner, who looks smoking
hot in spandex and who isn't afraid to abandon her husband for the
League of Extraordinary Penpals several nights a week. She accepts me
for who I am and didn't even blink when I confessed that I was really a
54 year old cab driver from Pakistan.
Believe
me, Laura is really awesomesauce. We've tried to pick fights, but it's
just impossible! She did tell me one time that she loved dinosaurs more
than me, but I forgave her. Her only annoying habit is spelling receive
with the i before the e, which is starting to mess with my mind because
I'm starting to spell it the wrong way as well! But Laura is the meat to
my sandwich, she's my Chinese twin (did you know that she was
Chinese?!) and without her, there would be no League of Extraordinary
Penpals! Working with her has been a
total blast and I'm extremely grateful to be able to make my dream come
true with her by my side. Thank you, Squirrel!
And
now I'll let Laura share her side of the story. As much as I love her
though, have I mentioned that she might be a bit of a liar?
The story so far (from Super Squirrel's point of view):
It all started with a Facebook message from Julie. She told me that
she wanted to start a penpal club, and asked if I would be interested in
being her partner on the project. I originally thought she was joking
and responded with a joke of my own. But when Julie convinced me that
she was serious about partnering together, we started emailing everyday,
throwing ideas back and forth—something that we continue to do even
now!
We tossed around a number of different name ideas (Correspondence
Club and Snail Mail Squad were two suggestions), but it wasn't until we
came up with The League of Extraordinary Penpals that the club really
came together. The name is a play on The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen, which is also why we decided on a superhero angle for the
club.
Julie and I have never met or spoken on the phone. Really! (I did
start getting weird prank calls around the time we were planning LEP,
but I'm fairly certain that wasn't Julie...). All of the planning
for LEP has been done through hundreds and hundreds of emails. Oh, and
dream meetings of course...
What are dream meetings you ask? Well, Julie and I agree on a
meeting spot in advance—we especially like the rainbow cloud with the
purple lining—and we have dynamite, creative meetings while we're
sleeping/dreaming. One of us is responsible for bringing the food, the
other brings the drinks, and we're both responsible for bringing our
fun, creative ideas! Of course, we might not remember everything we
discussed when morning comes around (especially if Julie brings
margaritas or tequila!), but we wake up refreshed and ready to make LEP
the best possible club it can be. Truth be told, a lot of our best ideas
come from these dream meetings. Especially when dinosaurs crash the
dream meeting and start doing Gangnam style!! You would have to be a
zombie not to get inspiration from that.
The scope of the club has grown exponentially from our original idea
(it was originally meant to be a one-off resource guide) and that
can all be attributed to the awesomeness of the Sushi and Squirrel
team. Julie once described our partnership in these words: she is always
one step ahead of me, but I always outsmart her in the end. In other
words, if we were the mafia rather than a superhero club, Julie would be
known as the "Starter" and I'd be the "Finisher." And for the most
part, that's how our partnership has worked. It's very collaborative and
respectful, and we make every decision together.
I haven't been
penpalling for years like Julie, but I am constantly awed by her passion
for mail and her dedication to the penpal community. Plus, she never forgets to bring the best foods to dream meetings and doesn't bat an eye when I ask her random questions like "What do you think of moustaches on ladies?" Part of what makes us such a great team is that we're definitely on the same weird wavelength, telepathic abilities aside.
I am so proud of
everything we have accomplished with LEP and I am so glad that Julie
chose me to be part of it. Recieving (recieve, recieve, recieve) that Facebook message was one of the highlights of my year.
Although LEP does require a lot of work (both Martin and my husband will have to start a "My significant other left me for LEP" support group),
it's also been a hell of a lot of fun and I can't wait to see what else
happens in 2013. No matter what happens though, I'm just glad that I'm
on this journey with a great friend. I wouldn't want to be doing this
with anyone else. Julie says that I'm the meat to her sandwich (which
really means a lot because Julie and I get dead serious about food), but
she truly is the wasabi to my sushi. I am so grateful that we are doing this
together. Thank you, Sushi, for inviting me to join you on this fantastic ride. It would only be awesomesauce with you as my partner.
