Fandex:

To  G Larson 

The Twelve Gifts I Wish for You
... in this special season and all the year through

Happiness. Deep down within.
Serenity. With each sunrise.
Success. In each facet of your life.
Family. Beside you.
Close and caring friends.
Health. Inside you.
Love. That never ends.
Special memories. Of all the yesterdays.
A bright today. With much to be thankful for.
A path. That leads to beautiful tomorrows.
Dreams. That do their best to come true.
Appreciation. Of all the 
wonderful things about you. 


-Collin McCarty 

    I read your story on NPR's End of Life Series 
    I wish You much laughter and healing tears.

Your mother would most certainly be proud.

Peace

- Jennifer S.

Punkie: Jennifer, thank you. That Cybercard meant a lot to me.

Punkie: I understand that "whole day's meal" concept very well, and would never ask someone to purchase my book if it would prevent them from having a hot meal. But your praise was very encouraging. :) The book is even stranger than the description! I had a lot of fun writing it.

The group "Prune Bran" that I was with was named after a sketch in Dynamite Magazine, and "Strange Tea" came from my idea to call it "Strange Brew," but Bob and Doug MacKenzie already beat me to that name by ten or so years. Politics can be damaging, my adivce is to simply withdraw politely, because a poltical structure that unstable will collpse on itself, and you will not be part of the debris. My group, which has had a total of three unpaid performances, thrives on the fact that we don't care if the group breaks up, we all have lives, and we're only doing it for fun. With four core members, we have avoided any stress. I think our group is just an excuse to have a party at my house, but maybe that's just me. :)

Thank you very much for your letter! :)

Punkie: Permission granted, if you make sure to quote me as the author. Now if only I could STOP people from flaking.

Punkie: Thank you! Wow, get paid to surf the web? Sounds like my job! Okay, I get paid to guard a hotline, but end up on the web a lot.

Punkie: [this is a compilation of several letters sent back and forth, with some "unpleasant" words omitted] Adrienne, I understand. I do get letters from people who try and tell me I am not "punk" or "goth" or whatever. Let them. It's a free country, and you can say what you want to on the Internet. According to the Oxford dictionary, "punk" has almost 2000 meanings. In the Punk and Goth community, it adds a few more. I am bound to not fit all those definitions. I consider myself punk not because I wear the trendy punk clothes, or shell out $$$ for the latest band, but more as an attitude, and the attitudes of people I hang out with. We're not conventional. You don't have to be, either. What speaks well here is you actually took the time to write to me to let me know your opinion, which in my opinion, is pretty damn cool. It shows you stand up for what you believe in. But don't get trapped by labels and definitions, or you will end up as sorry as the rest of the mundane world.

Punkie: Thanks! Although, don't use me as a tool to educate your brother, send him to some HTML do-it-yourself sites on the web. That's how I learned.

Punkie: Personally, I am glad that McLean has improved enough to have a loyal fan, or indeed, a fan at all. The 80's were a different time for the area. It was the era President Reagan convinced us that everything was fine, and pumped up the deficit beyond anyone's nightmares. But to us, there was a future to be had, we'd all be rich and successful, and to hell with today. You know what my class faced right out of college? The recession. I had already been working for four years when it hit, and even I wasn't safe from layoffs. I spoke to a classmate in 1994, top 5% of our graduating class, business degree, and he was making $14,500 as an office assitant for a paper form company. He was no loser, either, he represented what happened to a lot of my class, and to many people who graduated in the late 1980's. The fact was, McLean High School was no damn good. It didn't prepare anyone for anything realistic (like, oh... say home budgeting or how to have a job interview), and was staffed by one of the worst airheaded pricipals I have ever seen. Two years after I graduated, half the teachers quit. The head of the science department told me our football team got obscene quatities of money, while the science and art department was forced to deal with outdated equipment. Our film projectors? 1950's and 60's vintage. As a lab assistant, I had to boil down used copper sulfate so we could use it again next year. If someone broke a beaker or (heaven forbid) microscope? They tried to get the student's parents to pay for it. But when our football team, which lost nearly every game (except to the Langley Saxons, our chief cocaine suppliers), trashed their projection screen TV after losing the homecoming game, well, they got a new one! And they had their own jacuzzi for their sore muscles, and their own athletic nurse (who, coincidentally, was also my algebra teacher), and all kinds of perks. Meanwhile, we had to tell the honors biology class we couldn't afford enough frogs to dissect this year, you'll have to team up four students to each frog. But mismanaged funds was just one problem. When they insisted that girls wear dresses to graduation, our principal, who once cried over the intercom when she was having a bad day, responded to students alligations of sexism as "cute" and "Aw, come on, you'll look beautiful in those dresses." I was told she once was an elementary school teacher. I wonder if anyone ever told her her job descrition changed when she managed a high school? I think the last injustice I ever saw was I had always wondered why we had no pregnant girls. Surely, a national average of 2% of your graduating class would product just ONE accident. Oh, it did, but I found out McLean expelled you if you were pregnant, or heck, if you just didn't fit the mold. My friend Kelly was kicked out for dying her hair blue, and my friends Naomi, Shelly, and Gayle were also tossed out for "endangering the student body" by being (gasp) pregnant. McLean was a soaking rich, image-concerned machine. No wonder we hated our own school. I never went to my prom, and to this day, I am soooo glad I didn't. Our fifth year reunion was a washout, and no one bothered to have a tenth year. We even booed our own (enforced) pep-rallies. They changed our mascot from the Angus the Highlander (a guy in a skirt) to some Scottish Terrier (looked like a furry hippo) because some parent complained that Highlanders were (get this) disturbing crossdressers. I would sum up the student body as pre-occupied apathetics. We just wanted to graduate and get the hell on with our lives.

Gee, am I bitter? Does it show? It isn't just me, either. A lot of my graduating class has expressed such feelings as "what a joke" to "man, what was THAT all about?" So if you like McLean, then it must have changed since the 1980's, and I am glad things are better for you. I am. I hope you have a football team that students cheer for (or even show up to a game or two), cheerleaders that WANT to be cheerleaders (not just made to by mom), updated equipment, a principal that not only is seen out of her office, but even interacts with students. Go McLean! And keep going... far... far away... :)