Ah, SLU

Mike and I are both SLU (Saint Louis University) graduates. This brings with it all the responsibilities and privileges of, well, any university degree, but as a bonus, we get a little monthly or bimonthly magazine called Universitas. And occasional "please give us money" phone calls and a few little postcards alerting us to alumni events we never attend because, dang. Life is too short.

And then we stopped getting the alumni magazine and postcards. Not a big deal, really. We didn't even notice. It's not like I take my cup of coffee out onto the stoop and chat about the latest article about what scandalous art object the president has purchased and displayed. I live within walking distance (technically) of the place, but it's not like I yearn for the good old days of living in a dorm room the size of a largish saxophone case.

So my mother-in-law, Mary Helen, emailed me and let me know that the boys' Universitas magazines arrived. Pete and Steve graduated in May, and live here in St. Louis. But I know Mike kept the address in Cairo for some things until we bought the house--his mom's address is far less likely to change than any given apartment we lived in. But not only did Pete's and Steve's arrive...so did one for Mike and me. Seems that our last name triggered some over-editing of the alumni database. It is true that we're the only ones, the four of us, in St. Louis, with our last name. So perhaps they thought we all...lived together in the same house in Cairo, Illinois. Maybe they thought we were Pete and Steve's PARENTS.

But not only that--they had changed Mike's name to Edward and mine to Sarah Blake. Which technically is my name on the ole birth certificate. So we are now Mr. Edward Wissinger and Mrs. Sarah Blake. I wonder who I'm married to. I know there are other Blakes in the world, but I haven't actually met one in person. Perhaps it's some sort of marriage of convenience, green card kind of thing. Hmm.

The alumni office had a hard time accepting that the address change was legitimate, especially when Edward becomes Mike and Sarah becomes Bridgett and changes her last name to boot. But she claimed she was writing it all down. Next time, maybe my brother in Houston will start getting my high school alumni mail.

In the end, it's all stupid because I don't read the dang thing 90% of the time and I could do with fewer postcards and junk in my mail.

(I wonder if I'll get hate mail in my comments for this from the alumni office...I did when I posted about another college I visited back in high school...well, not hate mail, more like passive aggressive harrumphing).