Saturday Stuff That Doesn't Involve Football

 So today around Noon (right as the Clemson - S.C. State football game came on, coincidentally), I had this text exchange with my friend N (in case you're curious, I'm the broke one):

 So about 30 minutes later, N rolled up and we went and picked up P and instead of IHOP (I don't eat at IHOP), we rolled down to Cracker Barrel so N could buy us both brunch (really it was lunch, since it was 1 pm, but we all ordered breakfast stuffs, so ...)

The first thing that happened, just after our food came, was that an older gentleman stood up and broke into a lovely rendition of "God Bless America" and paused long enough to invite the entire restaurant (filled with mostly retirees and the three of us ... Hey, the Cracker Barrel's parking lot literally attaches to Sun City - an over-55 retirement community!).
N continued eating.
P watched the man with a big smile on her face.
I, of course, sang right along.
 The song ended and there was applause.
We were part of a moment.
It was nice.


The second interesting part of was that we travel with our own jelly, made by N and her husband in their jelly sweatshop.
And no, you can't have any.
P took the last jar home with her.

 And here's where P captured me and N in our social networking responses this morning:

 

 (We are definitely looking our finest here ... I'm tweeting and N is FaceBooking)

There was something else I was going to tell y'all ... Hmmm ...

Oh yeah! 

So, I was looking at a local university's job openings and stumbled across this gem (which I have edited in the event that I ever apply/be considered for a job there; any thing noted in parenthesis are my personal thoughts):

Volunteer Opportunities

 This program is organized and planned by its curriculum committees and everyone is encouraged to contribute in some way. You may teach or facilitate a course (for free), be a class assistant (for free), serve on the curriculum committee (for free), help in the office (for free) or perform other tasks (for free). Working together maintains a high-quality program at a reasonable cost. A good way to first become involved is to serve as a class assistant. These valuable members hand out materials (for free), make announcements (for free), set up equipment (for free), and assist instructors in many important ways (for free).  For more information please contact …

I'm just saying that this school is a state school (receiving state AND federal tax dollars, as well as lots and lots of $$ from local businesses). 

 And while I'm all about some volunteer opportunities, it seems to me that the school could be putting some students to work in their "Work Study" program (you know - handing out the material that instructors are clearly unable to hand out, making announcements for the obviously voiceless instructors, setting up equipment for these helpless instructors ... FYI: Currently there are exactly no student employment opportunities posted by the school)

Student Employment Opportunities

None

 A note about this "Volunteer Opportunities" posting: I attended a state school that has about 700 students in its current freshman class and:

The average class size is 25-30 students with freshman classes averaging 30-35 students. The student-to-faculty ratio is 18 to 1. Smaller class sizes and frequent one-on-one conversation with faculty are consistently noted by students as contributors to their academic success.

Not one of my professors needed a volunteer to hand out materials, make announcements (unless they were vomiting and running to the loo - I think that happened once with an expectant mum instructor) or set up their equipment. From time-to-time, outside of scheduled instructional time, we were blessed with community leaders/members who gave of their time to speak on their chosen careers (politicians, reporters/anchors, advertising execs, etc.) - but these folks were certainly not taking the place of instructors/professors, rather they were adding to an already rich educational experience being provided at a fair cost by well-educated, intentional teachers.

Now I'm off my little soap box.

So. Those are the things that happened today ... None of which had anything to do with football, which IMO makes today awesome.

Also, I got to sing "God Bless America".
In public.
Kind of loudly.
Yay!

See y'all later!