Remember to cross you T's and dot your i's.

Remember pen pals?  Remember when we were kids and part of our school curriculum was to write letters to other kids, thus making them our pen pal (and far away friend for life, or rather just that school year)?  They could have been children from another country (even half way around the world) or just kids from another town in our school district (the school board's way of saving stamps probably).  It didn't matter to us kids though, because even the other side of town was pretty far to a 9 year old. 

Looking back, I understand the thinking behind it.  This project teaches the young students how to write letters, work on their penmanship and spelling, and of course reading, in a much more appealing approach than just writing mock letters.  We also learned about other lifestyles, cultures and countries (cities and schools even) and creating relationships. 

Is it wrong that I find it sad that the art form of pen and paper writing is quickly dying off?  The idea of pen pals loses some of it's appeal when it's done via email (cause isn't that just online dating now?).  It saddens me that the youth of today will never understand how thrilling it can be to receive something in the mail with their name on it.  Something specifically for them, not just a random credit card application form that they aren't even legally allowed to have.   I remember trading sticker sheets with my pen pal in elementary school (don't ask me her name, I just know I got some sweet stickers and sent some sweet stickers).  It was cool to get random stuff from another place in the world.  You can't do that via computer now can you??

I kind of wish I had a pen pal right now.  Someone I could babble on to (I guess I'm redirecting my babbles through my blog) and send stuff to and vice versa.  Wouldn't that be fun?   So much so, that I researched the Internet looking for pen pal sites (after a brain cramp where I momentarily thought I might be on to something here - clearly millions of others have had this thought as well).  There are actually lots!  I'm contemplating joining one and finding myself a pen pal.  Like in Switzerland so I can go visit, or somewhere warm and far away.  Yes, ulterior motives always.  Unless you, dear reader, wanna be my pen pal! 

Anywho's here are some sites I found:

www.penpal-net.info
www.penpalgarden.com
www.penpalworld.com
www.penpalsnow.com
www.interpals.net

And my absolute favourite two are listed below.  I know I'm going to lose countless hours just going through these next two sites.  Most prison pen pal sites offer full disclosure of the inmates crime(s) and they offer additional advice when deciding to be a prison pen pal (probably like how to convince yourself to marry one).  I'm a great listener and advice offerer and I love juicy gossipy details, oh and crazy people's ramblings....this could be a wonderful union. 

www.prisonpenpals.com
www.writeaprisoner.com

Maybe if I persue this I'll get some great letters and future blog posts.  A two for! 
Writing pen pals AND crafting?  Look at me becoming all well rounded.