Who was that (un) masked man?

So tonight we had a big combined district music event. It involved (theoretically) all of the music students from all the schools: elementary through high school. It was a big glorious mess... but one that seemed to come off well enough to impress the school board members.

Maybe tomorrow I'll blog about the logistical behemoth this endeavor turned out to be... but tonight I have just enough time to tell you the funniest thing that happened:

First of all, we had all of the music teachers in the district under one roof. Some of these people I see only once or twice a year.... a few I haven't seen since last year's uber-concert extravaganza. Keep in mind, this year I've lost weight, gotten rid of my glasses and (recently) had my hair cut to a drastically short length.

I was standing around waiting for my turn to conduct, when I had this exchange with one of the elementary teachers:

Karl: I haven't seen you around before, are you guest conducting?

Me: Heh... I've been getting that a lot, especially with this haircut.

Karl: Um... are you from one of the colleges?

Me: Sorry?

Karl: ..................

Me: Karl..... do you not recognize me?

(Karl turns red and doubles over.)

I feel bad telling this story, especially since later I told Susan and didn't know karl was standing behind me. I don't mean it in a "Hey, can you believe how stupid Karl is?" way... more of a "I can't believe how different I look to people now." I should e-mail him tomorrow.

You know... it just occurred to me that with all the changes to my appearance, people might think I'm having a mid-life crisis.