Commander of the parking lot! Dictator of traffic!

I am the parking lot monitor for the girls' school.  It's an insane situation in that parking lot and so I volunteered to help out.  You see, the school is on the end of a dead end street and the parking lot has an area for the buses to turn around using a three (or more) point turn.  Most drivers wait to enter the lot until the bus has turned around but there are some who try to navigate around the bus making it a bit of an intense situation.  I was asked to stop the traffic for the buses because of these few people.  There are also some people who park in the turn around zone.  Mostly, they're people who don't normally drive their kids to school and so they don't know the drill.  If the buses haven't all come yet, I ask them to move and point to the parking along the fence where it's safe for them.

Then there's the parking lot itself.  Oy.  There is a certain flow that parents need to follow and it's a strictly one way flow.  Once the buses come, I usually just stand at the side of the lot and help people who don't know the drill or ask people who park in the "drop off zone" to park along the fence.  I usually only have to move from my post at the fence once a week.

Today! Ugh!  While I was stopping the traffic for the buses, someone parked in the "enter" area of the parking lot not realizing it is not a parking space.  I didn't see who it was and so I couldn't stop them.  So now instead of an enter and exit area of the lot, we have only one lane.  I got to play traffic cop and direct the traffic in the parking lot so sanity would remain.  I felt like such a jerk stopping people coming in to let out the three cars leaving the drop off zone but it had to be done.  Most people smiled and gave me the WTF look and I would just shake my head, shrug my shoulders and smile back.  One lady rolled down her window on the way out to tell me I was doing a wonderful job in my role of parking lot cop today!

So, it's nice to be appreciated.  I knew that when I was just standing there I was helping people, even in a small way, but today it was so nice to be told that I am appreciated.  The car turned out to be a substitute teacher's car and so I met him in the lot and told him the routine.  Then he moved his car and all was good.

All hail Sara!  Dictator of traffic!  Commander of the parking lot!  All cars know me and fear my wrath!