That'll teach you to park your car in a parking lot!

After a day and a half of showdown, Ethan finally caved and is now eating whatever we give him. I knew I was tougher than a 14 month old! Well. I know it now.


It is a beautiful time of year to be on the U of A campus. The temperature is perfect, flowers are blooming, and people are cheerful. Spring break was last week, and a lot of people are surprised to find out that although classes are in session, the university is actually not closed the week of spring break, except for Friday. It's actually a great week to be here--we get tons of work done and it's nice and quiet.


Another huge perk of working on spring break is that since the students are gone, faculty and staff can park in their lots. People who don't work in higher education cannot fathom that I pay over $500 per year for the privelege of parking where I work. And I use the phrase "where I work" loosely, since the parking deck that costs me the aforementioned over $500 per year is about a half a mile from my office. But such is the life of a college administrator, and so I perservere. We live for the periods that classes aren't going on, though, because whenever the residence halls are closed we can use their lots, which are right across the street from my building. It means I can leave my house 10 minutes later and arrive at the same time.



Last week, I parked in the student lot on Monday morning and strolled into work. When I left that afternoon, I noticed that the U of A's maintenance department was putting up saw horses in the front half of the lot's spaces. As cars vacated, they were replaced with sawhorses. Tuesday morning, only a few cars remained. As I walked in, I thought "Hmm. Wonder what they do if those people don't ever come and move their cars."



I found out when I left for lunch.

It appears that the building next to the parking lot was in need of a new paint job. I don't know if the crack team of planners in charge of the project just never thought of the possiblity that people might not move their cars in a less than 24 hour period, or if covering other people's cars with giant black tarps held in place with rocks is standard U of A maintenance procedure. Regardless, about 5 cars were in this situation by noon on Tuesday.

Can you IMAGINE your reaction if you came to retrieve your car and found this waiting for you? What kills me is that this is a student lot, and they KNEW that students would be leaving for Spring Break. Why not just close the lot?! I am always very supportive of the U of A. After all, it was here that I received two degrees, met my husband, found my career and learned what it means to be a true Hogs fan. There's no question that the place has treated me well. But really, this is just absurd.

I hate to be a negative Nelly, so I'll end this post on a positive note. The abolute most annoying guy on this season's Survivor was voted off last night. Justice is served!