A Hodge-Podge Sort of Day

I feel like this has been sort of a hodge-podge sort of day...with things and thoughts randomly thrown together...

First, I get to the office and realize that our entire "system" is down...meaning no access to internet/email/server (which has pretty much all my work stuff on it). Even the phone system was funky. This made it pretty difficult to get any kind of work done, which was kind of okay, because I had a meeting at the Federal Building in the morning anyway.

My meeting was at 10AM, and my colleagues and I were advised to get there with plenty of time to spare, as getting through security at the building was talking longer than usual these days, due to construction on the building, and the fact that the federal trial for the "Underwear Bomber" was happening in Detroit. Getting through security in this building is usually annoying anyway, but this time it took us 30 minutes to get through. We just finished getting through security, and were headed to the elevators, when they evacuated the building (or at least, the lobby) for a fire drill. So we go back outside, and wait in the cold wind for about 15-20 minutes before they let us back in...and back through security. Only this time there was a whole mass of people trying to get through security, so it took even longer. We didn't get through security and to the elevators (again) until 11AM...and we had arrived at the building at 9:30.

Then, this afternoon, I gave a presentation on homelessness to a small group of high school juniors/seniors at a school out in the 'burbs. It was kind of an interesting experience, considering that I hadn't been in a high school in a loooong time. The kids were actually really great, and asked a lot of good questions. One of the girls walked me out of the school back to the parking lot, and I asked her where she was thinking about going to college next year. She said she was looking at Brown, Loyola, and some other small college in Chicago. I couldn't help but think "whatever happened to going to school in State"? She said she was interested in becoming a veterinarian...doesn't MSU have a great veterinary science program? Think of how much money she/her parents could save. Obviously, I don't know her whole story, so perhaps it's unfair for me to make a judgement. Regardless, it just made me realize that times have changed quite a bit form when I was a high school senior and pretty much everyone went to school someplace in state. I can only think of a few classmates who went to school out of state. Is going to an in-state college lame these days?