regarding the Frear craziness
Perhaps this needs clarification, as I've gotten emails that I believe were concerning this phrase. I will here set things as straight as I can. Before I do, remember, that those involved in this story were young, and it would be silly to hold the contents of this story against them. Additionally, this is me telling it, so there will be things missing, my perspective will be added, and likely some amount of historical revisionism will take place. On we go:
I'll skip over much by saying: Laura Frear was pretty great. My first female friend who happened to be sexual. She was liberated, and my group was not, except for possibly Dan. I believe we were all virgins then, so any female added to the group would likely have proved to be incendiary. I met her when I was a sophomore in high school, and was friends with her for probably about two years. She was bipolar, and had at times been violent with me, likely others, too. The violence wasn't much an issue, just a source of my whining and stories for my later life.
But to the point that seems to be held in contention: Laura did not break up the 'old circle' of friends and I would not claim she did. I will state here that Laura Frear's presence sped some things up. Part of the cohesive bond of that group was our ineptitude with women, and honestly we hadn't started needing them yet. We only started wanting them. Dan reached the 'need' point first, and began making fun of Casey and Josh (while they were near) to Laura as it was an easy way to make her laugh. She was fine with Dan mocking them as they hadn't welcomed her into the group. Once Dan had done that, a line had been drawn.
After Dan and Laura had a falling out, he was kind of welcomed back into the fold. I hung out with Laura, Adam and Morinda (sp?) for some time before eventually parting ways. It wasn't a peaceful parting, but I hold no animosity for Laura. Adam and I drifted apart, which was a peaceful parting. That me and that her just couldn't have been very good friends.
I hope this helps.