following the yellow brick road

Well, I’ve had a strangely laid-back day today, especially considering it was the day of the Dreaded Student Teaching Seminar. And New Person is out of town for doctors appointments that she’d made long before taking this job, and K is on vacation, so I was alone. Except for one of our wonderful students who met me at the student union to help me hand out nametags first thing, and then had to go to class. In the past, I’ve always kind of enjoyed the post-sign-in-madness, although the supervisors would always start arriving just as the students settled down and stand around complaining about things to me and getting on my nerves. This year New Boss had a seminar for them too, that lasted all morning and until time for their meetings with their students, so I just sat there unbothered at my table. Even better, I brought along the laptop. I’d not figured out my wireless thing at previous meetings so always ended up getting kind of bored. I’d always forget to bring a book, and it’s hard to find a decent paper for some reason – all they ever have is USA Today.  Why would you read a paper without comics?? And I’d bring my paper journal but that’s hard to write in with people milling around.

So today I just fired up the laptop and spent all that time catching up on everyone and reading the NY Times and working on my Flickr account and just having a very pleasant time of it. The morning flew by, and apparently things went off without a hitch. Other than a room typo on the agenda which caused a bit of confusion, but certainly nothing major.

Even better, I think New Boss is finally settling down a bit herself. She is Dr. Airhead’s polar opposite as far as reactions to things go. For him, no matter WHAT happened, it was no big deal. He never blinked an eye at the biggest disasters possible. New Boss freaks out over, oh, EVERYTHING. Today, however, she was calm and not overly concerned over the room typo, and she was also calm about the fact that I managed to tell New Person the wrong time to have the students meet with their academic supervisors. At their orientation, it’s always 3:00 because the orientation is late in the day. At this one it’s always 1:30. So naturally I tell New Person 3:00 for this one. And when I discovered what I’d done day before yesterday, (as I was reading over the agenda and thinking "Why is there so much time between these last two meeti…OH SHIT!!!),  I decided I’d not even mention it to New Boss and hope that she didn’t notice. It just made the students have a VERY long break between meetings, and it was too late to do anything about it. Dr. Airhead would have laughed about it, (and I’d have admitted it to him as soon as I realized what I’d done) but I feared she’d fall apart. Well, she DID start wondering yesterday why there was such a long break – so I did the "Oh, no! I must have told J the wrong time!!!!" thing. As if I had no idea. And – shock! – she took it very well. In fact, after mulling it over a bit, she suggested we put that couple of hours of dead time as "Resource time – to talk to supervisors, professors, check the career center, use the library, etc." I was most impressed. And happy that she’s realizing some things aren’t worth having a heart attack over.

It’s been kind of a difficult adjustment, going from Dr. Whatever! to Dr. Neurotic and Obsessive Micromanager.  And having to start worrying about how she’s going to react to things, especially in Office O’Disasters. But I think we’ll be okay now that she’s getting over it a little bit. It is maddening that I keep making mistakes like that, which is actually surprisingly unusual. Surprising considering what a madhouse this is. Maybe that will improve too, now we have New Person to take over all this STUFF I HATE.

But anyhow. I’ll just celebrate a day gone well with more Oz pictures:

 

 

 

Munchinkinland!

 

 

The Scarecrow with what looks like a little Glenda the Good wearing the Wicked Witch of the West’s hat, but is actually the Wicked Witch standing behind Glenda.

Baker B and the Tinman. In front of the Tinman’s house. Tin Man? I should REALLY know which it is. That’s horrifying, for such an Oz fan not to know which is correct. The Tinman later on was having some problems with a certain piece of tin, which kept flopping off and making us all glad he was wearing undergarments. He also quoted Dark Side of the Moon to Baker B and I’ve completely forgotten what he said. Removing all the humor from THAT joke.  Last year the Lion said, in his best Lion voice, "The lunatic is in the graaaaaaaaaassss!!!"

 

The Lion!

 

Amusing smiley flower.

 

 

The Tinman looks like he’s up to no good here.  And poor Dorothy is oblivious.

 

 

Glenda in front of the nifty waterfall. Also looking a little odd, as if she’s about to lead us in song. I kept getting everyone looking strange.

 

Sinister Flying Monkey.

 

 

A kind of downcast Flying Monkey. There were a LOT of Flying Monkeys this year. There were so many that we started wondering if Oz had been taken over by Planet of the Apes.

 

The Wicked Witch, cooking up spells.

 

 

Scary Talking Trees. They don’t actually talk, except for one that has a tape recorder behind him so he keeps going on and on about how would YOU like it if someone was …. pulling things off you, I think. As many times as I’ve heard that, I should know. There are bunches of tree faces, though.

 

The Yellow Brick Road, of course.

 

 

The Gatekeeper, letting us into the Emerald City, which sadly no longer exists as it burned down shortly after the park closed. It’s where all the shops and shows used to be. He was a good Gatekeeper, though. There’s a big bell there, so kids would ring the bell and he’d stick his head out and say, "Can’t you read?? The bell is out of order! You have to knock!!!" And slam the door shut. Resulting in much laughter from the kids.

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A tired looking bunch of Oz citizens.

 

The Wicked Witch and a Winkie dancing. Of course you can’t tell here that’s what they’re doing, as it’s just all blurry, and I don’t really know why I’m even POSTING it since you can’t tell – but I liked it for some reason.

Oz Citizens headed back to the barn. I took a picture of them all headed right for me, but sadly it was really really blurry. And not in a good way.

And if that’s not enough Oz, I’ve got even more pictures on Flickr!