Caller ID killed the annual fund

I feel like a bad person every time the screen on my silver razor pops up a number starting with 651-696-XXXX. I feel bad because calls with this area code and prefix originate from my alma mater. Said alma mater is a very pricey school that desperately wants to play with the big boys when it comes to alumni giving and endowment-building. Too bad said school pumps out teachers, social workers, nonprofit directors, academics, activists, ascetics, and all manner of other people who don't make enough to repay their expensive educations.

Since graduating from this illustrious institution, I have done Americorps, temped, and tortured myself with an additional 2 years of expensive education. For this reason (not to mention some residual emotional scarring left from my college days--not related to the wonderful people I met there!), I am just not ready to write that first check to the annual fund. Undaunted by my 4 years of call-avoidance, sweet young freshmen working for pennies and free pizza keep calling me from clearly recognizable numbers. Maybe next year, girls.

Always one to give credit where due, I must admit the alma has some creative ideas on how to suck in alumni. Unfortunately, few are up my alley. I have recently received colorful emails or print mailers inviting me to:

• Travel with the school bagpipe band to a Scottish fair in Canada
  
  
• Attend a "Sale of Arts, Crafts and Creative Ventures by and for the college community"

Needless to say, these are not my kind of events. But finally the tireless alumni relations staff found a way to hook me. Next week they are hosting an event titled, How to Find Great Bottles of Wine under $10. Tickets are only $13, food is provided, and since the focus is on Spanish wines they'll even throw in a professor to lecture on the Spanish wine culture. Congratulations alumni relations staffers! If I didn't work all the time these days I would seriously consider going.

Shout out: MN National Guard

Today's shout out goes to our state's men and women in camouflage. I have the pleasure of working with a few gentlemen from the Guard's administration. In addition to being great to work with, these guys represent a truly impressive organization. A few examples:

• According to recent testimony at the legislature by the head of MN-NG (Adjutant General Shellito), the Minnesota Guard has the best recruitment of any state (even during wartime) and is frequently chosen for federal missions because it is one of the best trained, equipped, and staffed guards in the nation.
  
• MN-NG is developing a nation-leading reintegration program to help returning troops settle successfully back into their lives.
• According to a recent public radio story, MN-NG is one of few military organizations to support blogging by its active duty members despite other military organizations' reticence.
  

It's pretty incredible listening to recent public radio stories about what soldiers (Guard and otherwise) and their families face. With deployments to both Bosnia and Iraq, many of the 2,700 MN-NG members currently on active duty have been overseas 3 out of the last 6 years. That has to be a little more soldier than they expected when signing up to be citizen-soldiers.

Relationship Development: TV time

I wouldn't have thought TV-viewing as a couple would be so difficult. But my man and I have serious trouble settling on something to watch together. He tends toward flipping between multiple movies produced before 1980 (all of which were in progress when we started, and with the flipping we fall farther behind); educational television about science/world events/history, and occasional stops at the male standards of Simpsons, Seinfeld, and Simpsons. I prefer action/adventure movies made after 2000 (in their entirety), hit teen dramas, home decorating reality shows, reruns of CSI (Las Vegas, sometimes Miami, never NYC), all things Jon Stewart, and documentary-type shows that explain how things are made (typically common household objects or large feats of engineering).

So far we have managed to bridge the divide with two shows:

• Pussycat Dolls: Search for the Next Doll
• MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge)

Not sure what this says about us.

Fake spring

So, I've decided to take this fake spring thing we're having and run with it. Aside from work (where closed-toed shoes are the appropriate choice when wandering amongst old white men who are looking for a distraction from the business of tampering with our laws), I have been wearing only sandals. Unfortunately, I forgot to inform this evening's torrential rain and chilly wind about my plan.

Customary Blog Introduction

I have no profound reason for sharing my thoughts with the world. A friend told me I should start a blog; he is the state K12 industrial-educational complex's newest expert on blogging in the classroom so I figured I'd better listen. Pretty much end of story. My friends are used to me ranting about all sorts of things, so here's my chance to rant to perfect strangers.