they have arrived.

Freshman move-in is tomorrow, and now that I’m in the part of campus that is surrounded by dorms instead of the part that is surrounded by classrooms, quite the big deal has been made about how tomorrow all our parking will be taken up by parents moving their kids in. Tomorrow.  As in, not today. So what exactly are all these moving vans and cars with thumpy music and scraggly kids and annoyed traffic police and sweaty parents hauling refrigerators doing clogging up the street outside? Besides drowning out the extremely pleasant sounds of buzzing insects outside my window?  Which may be a good thing – that makes me very very sleepy about this time of the day, listening to those droning insects. I feel like I should be sitting on a shady veranda in the Deep South, listening to cicadas and sipping a refreshing beverage.

But back to the point – where did these people come from??  We expected this tomorrow, not today.  I couldn’t get a parking place after lunch and had to park way over where I used to park – where there are no dorms close by, so no student-moving-in-traffic.   Which is a good five minutes brisk walk from here. Luckily I had, for once, allotted PLENTY of time to get back. Because this office is kind of, ummmmm, obsessively prompt. Like, if you’re five minutes late, you BETTER call and let someone know. And they aren’t going to be too pleased about it.

Happily I’m speaking from someone else’s experience here, and not my own. Chronically Late Woman has been on time every single day since she started. Not only on time, but a few minutes…early. It’s quite amazing. However, two of my coworkers are often a few minutes late, and this morning my Immediate Boss told me the Associate Dean DOES notice. And is not pleased. Funny how it’s easier to get up and get going in the morning when I don’t feel like I’m being shoved into the very bowels of Hell itself. It’s kind of fun being the one who ISN’T late for once.

I keep hearing that it’s going to get really really busy. Yesterday we had to go to the Transfer Student Orientation, which was going to be a madhouse. Hordes of confused, upset students with massive schedule problems were going to be descending upon us, probably in tears, so that we could get them in the classes they need and out of the classes they don’t. We had three students. None of which were in tears, although one did look a little close. They did have confusing and (for them) upsetting problems, but we got all three sorted out. And then sat around chatting and (in my case) reading the NY Times Online Edition.

Next week it’s supposed to REALLY get really really busy, though! I’m starting to suppress laughter whenever I hear this. Right now I have, seriously, nothing to do. Other than update some grades in folders which I’m trying to stretch out as long as I can so I won’t look completely out of things to do. And read all the procedures notebooks. I’m also working on some notes and cheat sheets for myself, since this IS complicated. When there’s actually something to do, I mean. I’ve had to try figuring out GPAs a few times because I will certainly have to do it for real at some point, and it’s a bizarre complex operation and I’m not good at math. People who are in danger of being suspended – or who ARE suspended and want to get back in – often need us to tell them what grade they will need in order to get out of danger.  And of course if we miscalculate and tell them wrong, we’re in big trouble. And they can’t figure this kind of thing out for themselves, because that’s what other people are for.

Oh, look – nearly time to go! I’ll leave with a few amusing pictures of Stella and her new obsession.

Yes, it’s the wardrobe which is apparently now a permanent fixture in the living room! And it looks TERRIBLE in these pictures. It looks pretty bad in person, but I think with the flash all its flaws are highlighted, because ugly as it is, I don’t think it’s quite THIS bad.

I need Marg to come up with some fitting dialog for these!

Apparently there is something BEYOND the back of the wardrobe. Or maybe she’s just read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Sadly I didn’t get any pictures of the Grab The Fingers and Bite game, though.