Social networking for the antisocial

In yet another testament to my obsessive nature, I've been spending way too much time weighing the pros and cons of joining Facebook. I have a feeling that a normal, well-adjusted person would not devote this much thought to whether or not to register for a free account on a social networking site, but Lord knows it's been years since either of those adjectives have applied to me. It's gotten to the point that I've been having unsettling dreams about potential Facebook encounters. Seriously. I may need professional help.

My biggest impediment to joining is still the idea that it will somehow ruin the cloak of invisibility that shields me from former high school classmates. The whole thing just seems like such a slippery slope--the more friends you have, the more ways people have to find you, right? Plus I still feel too old for it, although I know that's not true anymore.

But on the other hand, I hate to be the 21st century equivalent of those people who still didn't have an answering machine ten years after they were invented. I'm afraid I'm getting a reputation already--one of the students this semester was doing a sociological study on online communication and alienation, and her instructor suggested she interview me as an example of an allegedly young person who is leery of the new technology. I'm no early adopter, but I'm not an avowed Luddite, either.

Ugh. I'm sure it's only a matter of time. This is turning into a dilemma on the scale of whether or not to have children. Which will come first: the baby or the Facebook account? Frankly I'm not sure which is more of a commitment.

A grilled cheese kind of day

So much for my "at least a post a week" resolution. April has been a lovely combination of busy and depressing--typical for the end of the semester. The last few weeks have been almost entirely devoid of those grilled-cheese-in-the-stairwell moments that make my job worthwhile, but today was an exception, so I wanted to make a point of commemorating it.

The spring issue of the student literary magazine debuted today, and it turned out beautifully. Although it makes me a little sad to say it, having the graphic design class do the layout and production made a world of difference. We were able to have it printed in color, on glossy paper, and hold a little "release party" reception today during the lunch hour. The students really responded to it, and even though we charged a dollar an issue (the old, photocopied version was free), a surprising number of students and faculty bought copies.

A couple of weeks ago a coworker of mine said she and another instructor had been speculating about when I'd come to the realization that I'd never be able to make any real changes at school (or something along those lines). It was intended as a commiseration rather than an insult, but it coincided with the aforementioned depressing part of the semester, and I was actually feeling rather badly about it lately.

Today, between handing out stacks of glossy magazines, collecting used textbooks for the second round of the book swap I helped start last semester, and finishing up the grant proposal for the speaker series we're hoping to organize, it occurred to me that perhaps what I do isn't completely futile after all. I think they'd miss me if I was gone, and not just because they need me for accreditation purposes.

Of course, the fact that it was sunny and 65 today may have had something to do with my sudden change of heart. Never underestimate the power of the weather.

Quote for the day

They were Catholics like they were Americans--it was their birthright, a form of citizenship that their parents had passed on to them and that they would pass on to their children, regardless of whether they toed the Vatican line on morally fraught issues like abortion and wet t-shirt contests.

--Tom Perrotta, Little Children