Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's 11:21 AM on Tuesday, March 17th, and I've been officially back at the grindstone since yesterday! Spring break is such a lovely thing, but so very transient! I spent most of my break at home in the Jerz...drinking tea with my mom, taking care of Grandma, hanging out with my brother and sister, running with my dad...it was so nice to just step away from work and papers and things for a few days!

I DID take one excursion...I went to Baltimore with my dad and my 17-year-old brother, Brian. In the morning, we met an F&M friend of mine, a woman named Barb. Barb used to head the Ware Institute for Civic Engagement at F&M, and she now works at Hopkins. I was lucky enough to snag her for a breakfast meeting, and we talked about how to get involved in civic engagement jobs after graduation. One of the nicest things about meeting Barb was hearing about how she herself worked through different higher education jobs to get to where she is today. Often, I hear stories about people coming indirectly from various disciplines into the higher education sphere, but Barb took the "direct route" (the Higher Education degree) as I've chosen to do, and it's a comfort to meet someone who's already done what I'm doing and has achieved such great success!

After meeting Barb, we headed to Loyola College for an information session and a tour. My brother is on the prowl for a college right now, and his interest in business (and perhaps in getting a day off from school!) brought us to Loyola for a visit. The information session was led by this woman who apparently graduated from Loyola five years ago. The girl leading it was relatively new to her position, and she took this as an excuse to seek verbal affirmation after just about every sentence she delivered in her session. ("i.e. "Loyola offers club sports for those not interested in competing at the varsity level. ...Was that helpful? Did I explain it enough for you? Do you have any questions? How about you? Do you have any questions?" etc.). This would all have been tolerable had it not been for the question posed by a mom in the session: "Why did you choose to go to Loyola?" "Well," the girl says, "I actually didn't originally choose to attend Loyola. I received a scholarship to a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. It was in the middle of nowhere and there was absolutely nothing to do and I just couldn't stand there. It was called--" --drumroll please...-- "Franklin and Marshall College." Was she kidding me?! Clearly, I was floored...and not in a good way. Luckily, I have some self control and I simply sat in the back of the room and glared at her without stating my allegiance to the WONDERFUL institution that is Franklin and Marshall College.

Despite a less than wonderful information session, Loyola College itself was beautiful, the tour was great, and I sort of wish I could work there because I love how devoted the school is to promoting social justice and the liberal arts...two of my favorite causes.

Anyway. I'm back at the office now, and it's St. Patrick's Day, and I may or may not be wearing a green and sparkly tiara right now... :-) This week isn't too crazily busy, but next week will be because we have three big events next weekend...Diversity Day, TEP Preview Day, and Ed.D. Preview Day, the latter two of which I'm helping to plan. I'm trying to enjoy the calm before the storm...wish me luck!