APFPY 1st Anniversary

Barb(Kyoteee)'s Comments

Oh, boy! Where do I begin? I think first with a warm, heartfelt thank you to Eugene who brought us all together. (((((((Eugene)))))))

When I became aware of the existence of newsgroups a year ago, I started with soc.penpals. I was shocked and horrified at the garbage that gets posted there. I was looking for sane, decent people to correspond with (age not important) and most of what I saw I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. However, I did eventually hook up with a few folks who remain my email pals to this day. When I was about to give up completely, I saw a reference to APFPY and decided to lurk there a while. This was in late October. At first, I was confused because it seemed to be more of a giant chat room and everyone seemed to know each other so well and I felt too shy to post anything.

But one fine day I noticed that JimT had posted something like 32 posts in a row and all of them were one-liners tucked on the end of some very long posts. I'm ashamed to say that I kinda jumped on Jim about that... my first APFPY post. What a way to "introduce" myself! LOLOLOL I received a lot of email supporting my observations about snipping, though, so I started to contribute more every day. Next thing I knew, I was almost as prolific as JimT! I put a stop to that toute suite! The addiction to the group remains, though.

I have laughed and cried and commiserated with and argued with and flamed and welcomed and hugged so many, many wonderful folks during my time on the group that I can't imagine my life without it now. Though I do have a well-deserved reputation for speaking my mind without engaging my brain first , my life has become infinitely better and richer for knowing each and every one of you. I do love you ALL, even if I don't agree with you sometimes. A precious few I have met in real life and I hope to increase that number in the coming years. You are ALL my friends and will be until the end of time.

Thanks to Eugene, we've found a very comfortable living room where we can talk about anything and everything that comes to mind. The coffee flows freely and there's always a candy dish filled to the brim with chocolates. Who could possibly ask for more out of life?

Thank you again, Eugene, for enriching our lives. And thank you to the rest of you for being my friends and for allowing me to become a member of the APFPY family. ((((((Everyone)))))

Barb