in 12 hours...

i will get to visit with my dad and mom and things one and two -- and if i am lucky their parents too. we might get to go belly dancing in bmore for cinco de mayo. because that is how we quinns roll.

i am looking forward to seeing my parents. i am eager to visit with my dad in person so that he does not have to take out his "he-ring-aids" as riley and reese say. and i am hoping to play some scrabble* with my mother. also, if i am lucky, i will get to see the divine ms. sp in manhattan on saturday. hurrah!

[*sinead sent me a txt tonight -- two in fact -- about playing scrabble and drinking wine with amy, a high school pal. well done sinead on your 42 points worth of JURIST. but -- and barb will think this funny -- i am so jealous: you NEVER EVER EVER play scrabble with me. not in english. not in spanish. not in german.]

so i am off on nwa.com yet again tomorrow. but, first, i need to join my planning faculty colleagues in a barn for a retreat. i typed that "in a barn." i am thinking of wearing my dungarees and a red kerchief. i am meant to lead the faculty -- people a few and many years my senior -- in a discussion on race, ethnicity and gender in the curriculum. er. okay. i hope that i don't space out. or have any animal/hay allergies.

so far, the housing course this "spring" session is going well. week one: down. it's an interesting mix of students. i have grad and undergrad: "professional" school students (social work and architecture) and one grad economist; a few undergrad men who so want to be developers or new urbanists or new urbanist developers, and an art history major who is trying to problematize every single question i ask. (tonight, she stated flatly: "i have misgivings about the phrase 'good housing' it's very western in it ethnocentrism". i replied: what do you mean "western?"

interestingly, for the first time in years, maybe even in decades, i have several white men. more than one. and these fellows come to class with their ball caps backwards and on. one of these men reported tonight that an unspecified "leading economist" figured that the average american should expect to pay 1/3 of their income for housing. he thought this a stretch -- as in too much money. i gently reassured him that given market realities, some to many pay >50% of their income for housing. he was stunned.

i know that googs will want to put me in time-out with this one, but i couldn't help myself...instead of going with the same exact lecture and slideshow i did in the fall, i spent a couple of hours today working with materials on the pueblo urban settlements in chaco, new mexico. (i also found a reason to go along to new mexico to see jason! scott! smith! when he takes up his new teaching post). i decided to really talk about this more and not just mention it and show a couple of slides of pretty, quaint southwestern adobe. it took work and i have a ways to go with this lecture, but i liked it. it works. i moved from southwest to southeast then and talked about landscapes of power during slavery on plantations. (sure: it's straight up dell upton, but i do provide a bibliography and invoke names frequently. for i am no kelly viswanathan). at any rate, the argument was twofold: what do we think of a history of mass housing in the u.s. that does not begin in a new england town square?; and what can we learn about planning and power relations given these narratives?

and for this, i missed "everybody hates chris."