Chili's flair

This week I had the honor of receiving my very own Chili's flair. Here is how I got it:

I attended the 2006 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference in sunny San Diego, California. In order to go, I traded 8 hours of my life for free conference registration as a nameless "volunteer". A private in the Grace Hopper army if you will.

Part of my volunteer duties included manning the "gift shop" booth where we sold T-shirts, posters, and pins to spread the propaganda to the masses. We were also soliciting donations for the Systers Pass-It-On Grants. (They are small, one-time grants for incidentals to graduate students like me in the computing fields. A good cause that is appreciated by graduate students everywhere.) When someone makes a donation of any kind, they get a Systers pin to wear.

Well I probably should have started the story with a description of the lady I was working with. She was a little over the top, but in a good way with a small fetish for jewelry of any kind. Okay, maybe small is a bit of an understatement. At one point that afternoon, she admitted to me that she has a pair of glasses in every color. "Really?," I ask in ignorance of such things, "Why?'" "So I can coordinate them with my outfits, of course." she smiled from behind her bright aqua glasses. Of course.

As the afternoon went on, she kept putting pins on my name badge lanyard (the thingy that hangs around your neck). Before I knew it, I had been decorated with pins all over. I think she just couldn't help herself. When I actually got someone to donate (which was a stretch for me but a great learning experience), she was so excited that she would pin me.

Looking down at my name badge lanyard, I couldn't help but feel like Jennifer Aniston in Office Space. Without even knowing what was happening, I had acquired my Chili's flair.