That's the way it was and we liked it!

I've been marveling (in a very old-fart kind of way) about the way college has changed in the 8 1/2 years since I graduated. When I walk around campus now, it seems like everybody's on their cellphone or listening to their ipod (so anti-social!)...and everything is online! Admittedly, even when I was in school the internet was up and running and beginning to tighten its grip on our lives, but that was nothing compared to now. Gone are the days of waiting in line at the library to use the copy machine in your two hours of alloted time with the reserve readings. Today's newfangled systems let us register for classes online, get our reserve readings and print them out, see our professors' class notes...and as an employee, I can check my vacation balance, fill out my W-2 forms and read the minutes of my last committee meeting. It's not so much the existence of these systems that amazes me, but how quickly it seems they were put into place. I can't imagine how much it cost to get them up and running in these past few years--and yet, my office hallway still looks like a 70s-era YMCA building.

But it's good to know that some things haven't changed. On my way home I was listening to the university radio station (one of two) and was pleased when a hard and electric song with lyrics like "we're gonna rock and roll forever YEAH!" was followed directly by the Indigo Girls' cover of "Tangled up in Blue". Ah, nothing like a complete musical non-sequitur to take me back to my WRBC days.