today's things

it was the penultimate meeting of this monday class. two of the students in that class are really pressing their luck. they tried some madness with a late night email, and i called them on it in class. what they proposed was fairly unbelievable -- substituting a project that they are now way overdue on for their final project. (these were totally separate assignments -- worth substantial chunks of their grades.) the details are not all that interesting, but they were way out line. and i was obligated to help them find the line and slink back over it. i am fairly certain that no one could have been able to detect how uncomfortable i was with this entire thing. i could not believe how i handled it. it was a rare moment when my ideal and real selves were in sync. i am certain that i would handle it differently again, but i am relieved that i nipped it directly and that i did not let this go on.

i spent more time in the map library today losing myself in representations of d.c. in the early part of the 20th century. and fooling around with maps that the staff are pulling for a small exhibition. oh how i love to look at the images that curators are working with for a show -- or a book. it reminds me of the very happy days i spent in the aaa si.edu orbit of jml + lk, ph.d. (a+p grocery store and greyhound bus line sure did marshal all manner of racist imagery to map the country in the 1930s. it is pretty stunning.)

i had a funny exchange with a sort of colleague today. i had previously invited him to come to north campus for a lecture, but he could not come; he wanted to know how the talk went. i ranted and gave him my cranky, irreverent take on being subjected to way too many privileged white men from the northeast this term during this lecture series. he explained to me then that he agreed with my assessment of this particular avant garde marxist radical (who teaches at an ivy league school). especially since he (my colleague) was his (famous professor's) student at another ivy league institution. my colleague remarked, "he is not in touch with his class position. take me, for example, i am petit-bourgeois/proletariat; simply, he is so haute (bourgeois)." i just stood there, i am so sure, blinking and confused, thinking chiefly about the twix bar i was about to purchase from the vending machine when we bumped into each other. then, he must have sensed my need for chocolate + caramel + cookie crunch. he explained that he needed to get to a lecture; maybe he realized he lost me before avant.

we have five dishwashers full of dirt in our driveway for a home improvement project. i am pretty sure this will be in the drive through april -- maybe until my parents come in may? i may even have a ph.d. by the time this is resolved. i look at these enterprises that my roommates take on and wonder if they were sent here by miss bird as a karmic lesson for me about all of my treasures i clung to while i lived with her. hear me now: i am once and for all resolved never again to buy a 50 pound burlap sack of basmati rice. and i will never make anyone i care about live with it. and i really will neverever let it stand for so long that she has to dispatch it down the third floor garbage chute.

i promise.