Unsettling

This morning I went outside to find someone had broken into my Jeep. The person very simply had smashed my front passenger side window, reached in, and took my work bag. Nothing else. When I realized what had happened, I went through a number of emotions pretty quickly. I was pissed off, upset, sad, aggravated, confused, and well...pissed off. So I call Mike, then my mom, to fuss and mostly curse. I call the police, and they send an officer to come take a report. I call my insurance to find out I am not covered because I have the most basic insurance I can have. I call what felt like every auto glass repair place in Tallahassee to find out the best place could not fit me in until Monday. So I tape up a trash bag to my window because we all know it will rain at least three times before then, and I resign myself to having a bunch of glass in my passenger seat.

Mike came and picked me up to go to lunch with one of his friends who was driving through town. I looked forward to taking a more pleasant break to the day since the rest of my plans were pretty much derailed. On the plus side, the glass repair people called me during lunch to say they had a cancellation and could fit me in today. They were extremely helpful and nice. They replaced the glass very quickly and even gave me a discount. If you are in Tallahassee, I highly recommend Safelite Auto Glass. Rock star service.

The first thing I thought when I saw the window was, "Really? Out of all the cars around, this person picked my Jeep?" If you have ever seen my lovely vehicle, you see the irony in this. Then when I realized they had only taken my work bag, I was even more annoyed. Granted, it was a nice leather bag with some pricey higher education books, a pair of Rainbow flip flops, and an umbrella in it, I cannot imagine any of it had much street value. Left inside was my satellite radio, car stereo, and CDs, the only things really worth anything. Perhaps the person was almost caught and ran off before (s)he could grab any of that. Perhaps the person is just an idiot. The door was still locked despite the busted window.

Now with my Jeep repaired, I will have to use a different bag for work on Tuesday. Luckily, I still have the brown version of the one that was stolen. I bought these from a leather store back home at a ridiculously good sale price a couple of Thanksgivings ago with my sister and Suze. Good times. I will have to replace my black Rainbow flip flops, which honestly were on their last leg anyway. I was simply waiting for them to completely fall apart before I spent money on new ones. This just expedited that process. I will have to look for a replacement of my favorite leadership book, and figure out what to do about the other books on student organizations that technically FSU paid for me to purchase at a conference. Sigh.

All in all, things are not that bad. I just find it unsettling when these things happen. A stranger violating your personal space/property is not a pleasant feeling. I just hope the person gets a good deal on the Black Market from those student organization management books. Ha.

 Of course one of the first things I did was take a picture with my phone.

I am glad the repair people vacuumed up all this!

Sidenote: This is my 100th blog post! I was hoping it be on something a little more fun, but I am sure better topics are on the way. :-)

IPDS 2010 (a.k.a. Networking in Indiana)

Yesterday I returned home from the Association of College Union International's (ACUI) Indiana Professional Development Seminar (IPDS). This is basically a type of orientation for new professionals in higher education, specifically those of us who work in and with college unions. I have to say the expereince was not only amazing, but far exceeded my expectations.

We were part of a class of about 50 participants from around the country. The seminar was about five days, and we covered a wide range of topics from career development to sustainability to collaborations between operations and programmers. The program was hosted at Indiana University, which is a beautiful campus in Bloomington. Four of us from FSU attended: Mike, Lori, Ian, and myself.

Most participants stayed in the hotel located in the Indiana Memorial Union. However, Mike, Lori, and I were part of 12 people who did not get rooms and had to stay further into town. (Ian got lucky and was upgraded to one at the last minute.) While this may seem like an inconvenience, it turned out to be a really nice walk to and from the hotel. It also made for a great running path in the mornings.

All in all, I have to say I really enjoyed the connections I made with other professionals. While networking is often a goal of most conferences and experiences, this time I really felt connected to the people there. We also seemed to make friends really well with the delegation from the University of Delaware. Who knew? I also connected with a number of people who have jobs similar to mine, and now we can connect, commiserate, and celebrate together. I can only hope that we will truly have a new network of people on which to rely as we navigate our careers in higher education.

I also felt like I really was able to take away much from our sessions and the experience as a whole. I gained a number of good ideas, tips, and tricks from the faculty and my peers. It was a great re-energizer (despite the fact that I am exhausted from travel). We also were able to learn much from the University of Indiana, and we were even able to tour a local brewery, Upland Brewing Co., to learn about their sustainability efforts and do a beer tasting! I was also able to have a geek moment when I had time to visit the Kinsey Institute. Amazing.

The most surprising thing was I now have a desire to learn more about ACUI and possibly get more involved with the association. (ACUI also hosted the Women's Leadership Institute I attended last December.) Luckily, the regional conference is going to be hosted at FSU this fall. So that will make things pretty easy!