A letter from Andrew Deppe to Charles in prison, Sept. 17, 2012.
Dear Charles:
Just checked my email and spent about an hour on the computer with the U.S. Chess Federation website, so I thought I'd compose a note to you at the keyboard this time. I got your letter of September 3 with the long list of legal websites to investigate. I thought I'd start with the Chess Federation, since you asked about that over the phone and mentioned it in your earlier letter of August 20.
What a project. I was able to submit an inquiry about correspondence chess, mentioning the name of Alex Dunne. However, their website and my printer don't seem to have a very good relationship. I enclose three barely readable pages: first is a copy of my inquiry submitted via their comments page; second is the main page under "correspondence chess"; and third is what came up under "more correspondence chess information." I was unable to find anything about algebraic notation.
Hope this helps. At some point, I'll get to the other list of websites. Meantime, tell me how you're doing with the paralegal course.
I've also gotten some phone messages of collect calls on my machine the last few days. I hope everything is all right. Sorry I'm so hard to reach by phone. If I come to visit in October, it will probably be in the first week (October 1—5 sometime). I'll either let you know or just show up!
I know you're in need of money, but it's pretty tight for me right now. I think I can scrape together $40 and send it with this letter tomorrow. My clients are continuing to cancel at the last minute, reschedule multiple times, or just not show up for appointments. The sessions that I am doing are great — I just wish I had more of them, and that people weren't so inconsiderate. I lose a lot of business holding a spot for someone, telling others I'm not available, then facing last-minute cancellations. In any event, I hope this contribution will help somewhat.
I don't have much cash right now, but I'm raising a lot of money for AIDS Walk, which I've been doing every year for 12—15 years now. This year it's September 30—and I've raised over $1,500 so far. I milked my 50th birthday for all it was worth, emailing lots of friends and family and telling them I wanted contributions to AIDS Walk as a birthday present this year. They're really coming through.
My birthday itself was great. My cousin Tom (son of my Uncle John who died in August) came to town with my Aunt Sue from Champaign/Urbana. His birthday is a day before mine. Stephen, my dad and I took him to a White Sox game (his favorite team), then my mother made a nice birthday lunch for the both of us the next day. That night, Stephen took my parents and me to a really fancy French restaurant for dinner. Lots of wine and fantastic, memorable food. Now I'm starting my second half-century.
Today is Rosh Hashana, so we went to services at Or Chadash (the mostly lesbian/gay synagogue where Stephen has been a member since 1978). It was a beautiful and meaningful service for the Jewish new year. I have plenty of new year's resolutions this time!
I'm still swimming in Lake Michigan every other morning or so, but the water temperature has started to drop. It's now about 72, after hovering around 79 or 80 for several weeks. We'll see how long I last! At least the indoor Park District pool is two blocks away, so I can start going back there when the lake has really cooled off.
I hope I get to see you in a couple of weeks. Meantime, hope the $40 is at least some help. I'm also planning to send $25 to Michael Williams, since I got another letter explaining his situation and what he needs. Love and blessings to you,
Andrew Deppe
See related article here: www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Dear-Brother-Behind-Bars-LGBTQ-letter-writing-to-prisoners-/42905.html .
