Sweet Charity

So, a couple weeks ago after church, a member approached me and asked me to help collect donations for the Association House of Chicago today.  I was in "Yes" mode (having just accepted the annual Easter brunch invitation from my Church-Mom), and agreed before I could stop myself.  Fortunately, I was able to take a Starbucks location.  Mmmm.  Mocha.  Mmmm.

Now, this involved standing outside Starbucks in Evanston and accepting donations from passersby.  Evanston is fairly affluent, so I knew it wouldn't be too difficult to get some change.  Part of the job entailed saying Lines such as "Would you like to help a child?" etc. 

Now, I should point out that I hate things like that, because, I don't know, for some reason, it feels like there's some sort of guilt being implied if I don't give.  Maybe it's just me, but I tend to be prone to feeling guilty about stuff like that.  It's taken me a while to learn how to Not Notice people soliciting donations.  This has saved me hundreds of dollars.

I couldn't really bring myself to say things like that, so I decided to conduct a little experiment.  I chose Not to Say That.  Instead, I smiled at people and said things such as "Hello" and "Good Morning" as they passed.  I don't actually think this hurt the amount of money I collected.  I even had a couple people give me change and say "Thank you - this is for not asking!"  Others would smile, and walk by, and then their curiosity would get the better of them, and they'd turn around and ask me for whom I was collecting.  That was kinda fun.  And the tacky vinyl vest I had to wear actually complemented my jacket rather nicely.

It was cold, though.  Even for a sunny day in late April, it was cold.  I kept alternating the hand holding the box, and would put the other hand in my pocket to thaw until the other hand froze.  People gave me money because I was standing in the cold.  But my smile never wavered.  When my relief came, I marched into Starbucks to get a Let's Thaw Out A Little Before Continuing With The Day Mocha.  With Whipped Cream.

I chatted at fellow congregation members passing by, I smiled at children, I talked to dogs, and lesbians gave me money "for not asking".  It was charitable.  I probably won't do it next year, but I'm rather glad I did it this year.  It was a Good Experience.

[Footnote:  The phone just rang.  Someone asked for "Yolanda".  I told them it was a wrong number, and they decided that maybe I could help them.  It was someone soliciting for charity.  I'm wondering if this is a way to get around the "Do Not Call" registry.  If so, I'm pissed.]

In other news:

I need to clean.  And pack.

I need to work on some Mu Phi stuff.  And grad school stuff.

And I'll probably do none of those things.

Daniel and I are supposed to go see Kill Bill 2 this weekend.  Yay!

For those of you who may've been wondering about the Deacon thing, I haven't heard anything.  However, this sort of thing isn't acted upon till June, so I've not dedicated a lot of time to thinking about it.  I've got lots of other stuff I need to be focusing on.