Homecoming, Snow, and India

Haven't posted for a while, so I thought I'd say something about... something. Homecoming, for example. The dress up days were SO much fun! Drew, did you happen to see my Tom Cruise ala Risky Business outfit? It was awesome. I slid in my socks in the hallway and Anne took a picture. I'll have it up on myspace asap.
Secondly, according to Yahoo weather, it might snow tomorrow! Well, rain/snow, anyway. I don't even snowboard or ski (except cross country) so I don't know why I'm excited exactly, but I am! The holidays are almost here! AND the holiday collection at American Eagle is up on their website! God I love clothes. But with holidays comes shopping: good because I love shopping, bad because that means lines of angry customers wanting their coffee NOW (or else!) and screaming kids waiting right outside the door of my shop to sit on the perverted Santa's lap. And then on his break he'll come in and gawk at me as I hum along maniacally to the holiday cd we must play NONESTOP. Oh yeah, it's gonna be great.
Thirdly, I received a letter from India yesterday. It was from this lady I don't know asking for money. LONG story, but I'll tell it anyway if you're bored enough to read it. Ok, so freshman year when I went to the Free Methodist church they did this thing where you fill a shoebox with toys, soap, a toothbrush, etc, and they ship it off to a child in a third world country for Christmas. They said if you wanted you could include your address and a picture of yourself, but not to expect anything back because they don't have a lot of money (obviously).
So fast forward to yesterday, when I got this letter. The lady explained that my box was given to an 11 year old girl who couldn't afford to send me back a letter herself, so she took my address and picture to the lady, who knows English very well. So she wrote this huge letter thanking me for making the little girl happy, and then she started telling me all about her life, like how she's a single mom of a little girl and they're barely making ends meet. Her husband abandoned her, but technically they're still married, so she can't get with anyone else. And she talked about how she's thought of suicide, but she won't because of her daughter, who she says is very lonely and spends a lot of time by herself.
So I'm reading this going, OMG, she's basically telling me her life story and she doesn't even know me! And at the end she said if I could write her back a letter she would appreciate it very much, and if I could send anything to help her family she would be so thankful. She sounded so desperate, I mean you'd have to be to write all that to a girl in another country you don't even know. And it was all handwritten, and she used up every single bit of space she could on the little Eurogram thingy, because they're really expensive to send. So I really want to send money and toys and stuff for her daughter but at the same time, I can't help but wonder if it's a scam. You wouldn't think they would bother handwriting that much if it was just a scam, but you never know. So... I really have no idea what I want to do. I know I'll be sending something just in case it isn't a scam, but if she writes back asking for more, how should I respond???? If it's legit I want to send as much as I possibly can, but how can I know for sure??? It's so frusterating.

So yes, that's what's been on my mind lately. Any imput/advice would be appreciated! And I'll just throw this out there~ what did you think of the latest issue of the Apple Leaf? We're aware of the typos and we know there were a LOT this issue (mostly because we had five pages more than usual) but content-wise, what are your thoughts? Any cool features ideas? Thanks!!!!