Phonathon

I've spent six hours of the past two days calling alums on behalf of the law school for the annual giving campaign. They enticed me with $60 and some free food. All in all - it was good times. There were the cranky alums, the alums who wanted to know all of my 1L professors, the string of around ten alums all were on medical leave/just had a surgery/on maternity leave/in the hospital for a general ailment/just had a tooth pulled and can't speak on the telephone, and the alum who berated me about how the school isn't making lawyers who want to stay in the state and how it's absconding its responsibility as a state school. I wanted to remind him that the law school gets no funding from the state, and that in-state kids only get a courtesy discount - so shut up. But thought better of it.

The highlight of the phonathon came towards the end though. I was diligently making my calls when my own phone rang. I didn't recognize the number, but I picked it up anyway. "Hello, my name is [____]. I'm calling on behalf of Sprint - together with Nextel, to offer you information about a new service we're providing." Because I myself was in the phonathon business, I decided to hear her out. She continued, "I wanted to let you know that this _________ will not count towards your ________ minutes. _______ free call." She continues on for a few seconds. I hear only every 3rd word.

As I sit there, I'm thinking that this isn't particularly good advertising for my blessed phone company. They are calling me on Sprint phones. And I had 3 bars. Yet I still couldn't make out what she was saying. Still slightly sympathetic, I thanked her for her time, told her I wasn't interested, and wished her a good day.

Sprint better offer me a good incentive to renew my contract this May.

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Spring Break. Now. Writing papers. Oh well.

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to be continued....