I apologize to the LAistas if it seemed that I was belittling the hazards of the natural environment there. The weather itself is pretty modest by the standards of most of the country, but I know that even modest weather can tip your idyllic but fragile environment into one natural disaster or another. It's a paradox of life there.

One depiction of the California paradise/disaster dynamic that I particularly like is the painting "Pool Party" by John Valadez. It's larger than life-size, and when you first look at it you focus on the prosperous, happy figures in the foreground. Then, almost before you can fully take in the scene, you are drawn into the raging, terrifying brush fire in the background. It's the essence of California, or America, or modern life, or something. It captures the same theme as DavidS standing next to the ocean and watching the Malibu hills burn. The painting is currently touring the country with the "Chicano Visions" art exhibit. The whole show is very good and worth seeing when it comes to your town.

Painting:

[link]

Better shot if you click though:

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So apparently, people from the other campus want to come here and schedule a meeting with three people on this campus (including me) who all work in different offices and have other work to do, in order to make sure our cover memos all look the same.

What? Your cover memos don't match!? Damn, it's like the terroists have already won.

The weather itself is pretty modest by the standards of most of the country

I think that "weather itself" doesn't mean much. Getting your annual rainfall in the first two weeks of the year is going to mess with many places -- everything's relative.

Hello, Emily. What's happening? We need to talk about your TPS reports....

Damn, it's like the terroists have already won.

I know. We should be ashamed.

Well, except that nobody's said anything about the format of them since 1999, and I took those amendments pretty gracefully.

Man, whatever. Maybe it's just an excuse for them to get out of the office. But it did just give me an epiphany... I really don't care. I have absolutely no investment in any of this anymore. Maybe it's time I looked into leaving. I was planning on sticking around for another couple semesters, until I'm ready to student teach, but I just don't give a shit about any of the stuff I should be taking care of.

Emily, I think you can reply to such a request with three words:

1) use
2) a
3) template

I mean, hello?

Ooh, kat -- that sounds good. Will definiately catch up on Everwood over the summer. Assuming that they show repeats.

So apparently, people from the other campus want to come here and schedule a meeting with three people on this campus (including me) who all work in different offices and have other work to do, in order to make sure our cover memos all look the same.

OMG, that's freaking classic. I have here on my desk a diagram of where the margins of my letter should be, including where the date and first line of the letter should fall. I didn't even need one meeting!

Getting your annual rainfall in the first two weeks of the year is going to mess with many places -- everything's relative.

Well, sure. But I still reserve the right to make fun of SoCalistas for whining about bad weather because of 10 rainy days. Paying serious attention to the larger implications (floods, mudslides, etc.) is different.

Yeah. I said, couldn't they just tell us what they'd like to do? But no, apparently they want to come here. I wonder who this is that's a) making such a big deal out of it and b) talking to my boss about it instead of me -- mind you, I'm only one of the three people that does it, so it's not exactly like they're skipping over me to get in trouble. Still. Freaky.

Where's my Calgon?