Is this normal?

I've either noticed some strange things or experienced random things, and I just had to share.

A rooster living in a park on campus. Yes, there's a rooster that lives in a park across the street from work. I've seen it once, and I've also seen professionals try to catch it with a net, pretty amusing actually. Apparently, there is a woman that feeds it every day as well. Obviously, a newspaper story is in the works.


To be greeted outside of church by a guy with an iPad to "check me into a class." I'm sure this is an efficient system, but it was yet another sign the church is huge. Of course, I was there for my women's study, which didn't count, so I didn't get to see what cool app he had for checking people in.

To watch TV while pumping gas. There were TVs at all of the pumps at this particular gas station. They were showing the NBC affiliate run by the journalism school, which is cool, but it still seemed odd.

To be asked if I'm on Facebook on a visitor card at church. Is it just me or is that a little creepy for a church or its staff to search for you on Facebook? It turns out this church actually ended up sending me snail mail this week.

People dressed as vikings in a park. I drove by this on my way home from work and thought maybe they were filming a Capital One commercial.

For a church service to completely stop for seven minutes while the children are dismissed. They had a countdown on the screen for when the service would start again. It kind of turned into social time, and I thought it disrupted the whole flow of the service, especially considering I don't have kids to take to a classroom.

To send out a Google form to my students and get half of them back printed out and filled out by hand. The whole point was that I didn't want to have to decipher their handwriting.

To get a gift certificate for a coffee shop in the mail from a church I visited. It's definitely appreciated, but is it necessary?