So what do you do when you have fallen deeply in love with someone?  You have tried to have the normal encounters with that individual, to no avail.  Well, you sit outside her dining room window and howl like a banshee.

Yup, that was just a part of my Friday night.  First something was crawling in the walls - and it sounded much larger than a mouse.  Then the forlorn Scooter tries to woo Millie, yet again.  This was the one time she was actually oblivious to a trespassing cat.  Sigh.  All I know is if I had a cutie pie like that after me, I would be right there with him.  So I decided to stay home and possibly deal with the creature in the walls and the lovelorn Scooter.  Then one of my favourite DJs posts some of what he played.  Some stuff that would have made for a great night out.  Darn.  All right.  Definitely getting my butt out tonight.

I also spent the night checking my song picks for my alumni show on May 10.  While it is free form and commercial free, we still have to abide by FCC laws.  That means no swear words that are highly offensive.  The mild ones are OK.  Each year, I have to go through my picks and look out for the big ones.  The problem is, much of what I like is angry, political, or passionate and that intensity lends itself to intense language.  It was easy when there was the record library and everything has the FCC no-no's labeled.  New studio, no library, all on us.  Luckily, I will not have to cut any bands from the list.

I am letting my students know about the show as I always do.  If they listen and name three bands and songs I played in a row, they get a 100 for the week.  Are you thinking it is stupid?  Not exactly.  Here's why.  When I transferred to MSC, I went to the cafeteria to try to get lunch at some point during a studio class break in my first week.  I thought it would be like JCSC:  good food, make my purchase, sit, eat, relax.  Wrong.  I pay for my food and turn to find a seat.  All I see is a sea of partially occupied tables and banners declaring that the empty seats were not available.  Why were they not available?  Because every table had been commandeered by a frat or sorority.  If you did not belong to the group, you didn't belong at the table.  I furtively looked for a spot.  I think I squished myself into a seat somewhere in no-man's-land.  I was clearly not even welcome at that table.  I wolfed the food down and got the hell out of there.

What was the message to me?  I did not belong.  A feeling I had been used to at that point with all the moving and changing schools over the years, but this was particularly grating.  We are supposed to be adults, I am paying tuition to this place, I should be able to eat my damn meal.

Then I got lucky.  I wandered the basement of the building and found the radio station.  A friend urged me to join because her brother had been a member.  I found my home.  That room in the student union basement was where I went when not in class.  I hung out, made friends, brought my meals down there, and I learned a hell of a lot.  I was the Operations Manager for a year.  I had listeners who called in regularly.  It was fun and free.

I watch and listen as my students are planning their first year in college.  Far too many think that the only way to make friends, have a social life, and enjoy the "college experience" is to join a frat or sorority.  Well, I vehemently disagree.  There are other options.  Those organizations are not a good fit for everyone.  What happens to the kid who tries to pledge and knows deep down inside he doesn't fit in?  Does he stick with it and deny himself the opportunity to find where he does fit in?  Or does he drop it and let himself be convinced he is a failure?  So I try in my not-so-subtle way to let my kids know there are other options out there.  Heck, some kids never join college activities.  They just focus on the academics.  Me?  With all my studio classes, job, and my desire to get high grades, I only had time for one extra-curricular.  But there are other activities to join.  And most of them cost nothing.  It might not be the "popular" thing in how our school defines popular, but we DJs were pretty damn cool.  We had a fabulous time in and out of the station, and many of us still keep in touch.  You couldn't pay me to trade that for a spot in a sorority.