Pen Pals and whatnot

I now have a PenPal. Her name is Madeleine and she is 8 years old. Ah, to be 8! I think I have a pretty good handle on 8... well a better handle than most, anyway. I doubt this PenPal correspondence will be completely honest. I have big ideas. This is, after all, the same girl to whom I gave her weight in Ghirardelli Chocolate for her Birthday.

A Tangent: in 1956, when my father was 5 years old his uncle Shelby (who was the CEO of General Mills and, obviously, quite wealthy) called him on Christmas morning and asked to talk with him. "Bill! Did you get the Pony? I really hope you love the Pony," he said. Although he easily could have afforded it, Shelby had sent him no Pony, he just got a kick out of having a kid believe him and then get crushed when his parents tried to explain why Shelby lied like that. I think this was a pivot point in Shelby's relationship with my Paternal Grandparents. That story really happened, by the way.

I kind of feel like my birthday gift was kind of similar, with the exception of not crushing the Christmas dreams of children and mine was delicious. I don't know what ended up happening to the chocolate, but I am sure Maddie didn't eat it all. I was afraid Megan, Madeleine's mother, would throw it away, which is why I bought Ghirardelli. You can't simply throw chocolate of that quality into the trash. At the very least, you have to give it to someone.

Anyway, I wrote Madeleine the first letter today. I now need to write it out by hand... on better paper... and then get it postmarked from Peru.