marbury v. madison

we are hemorrhaging jobs every day in this state, but the gas is reportedly among the cheapest in the nation.

my planning colleague the lawyer is offering a two part lecture this week in the "large" course. tuesday was a basic legal overview. i know he was speaking english, but, man, the vocabulary was so far removed from my realm of experience and my understanding of urban planning. it was also super illuminating because i realized that as he spoke there are people like himself and (maybe j.s.s. and surely others) who really really enjoy thinking about the structure of government. i can't wait for tomorrow because i think that he will talk about takings and kelo v. new london. i think that kelo is the biggest issue confronting students in planning now so i can't wait to hear what he has to say and how he lays it out. he is such a lucid lecturer.

i had some trouble in my other class and i welcome advice. one of my students in there...one who is going to cause me a lot of grief this term, wore a bright blue tee-shirt to class on tuesday. it said: i am not a gynecologist, but i would like to take a look.

gross, right? but hostile? inappropriate? and wrong? but how wrong?

what's worse is that it is a small-ish class...there are about 18 of us and we sit in a circle so everyone saw it. i mean everyone saw it. even the women who wear pray um bracelets and especially the one who wants to write her final paper on the campus crusade for christ.

i had many editorial comments about this punk as a person before he donned this particular shirt, but it's not fair to enumerate them now. i do not think that he was trying to target any one person in the class. (unlike the time when i had that football player at maryland who wore a shirt to class proclaiming "i treat bitches right" this after he and i tussled about how he treated me (playing with my ponytail during lecture when he came in late and crossed behind me). after i consulted ebb, i rang his line coaches and he ran sets of stairs and got a good ol talking to. but this michigan kid is not a player here. he thinks he is a player, but he is not on a team. so what to do? i spoke about it with some in the office -- some staff and my trusted colleague julius, but what to do? the kid was going to come to see me during office hours, but do i call him in? do i email him? i need one more night to think on it. thank goodness i didn't blurt out what was on my mind when i saw it at the outset of class. eddie: what are the slogans on the shirts of merlin students these days?

today i was on a panel for the grad students in american culture. the moderator and the other panelist s are big wheels/big deals. i got a little crabby during the panel because they dropped a lot of names and more showed models of engaged scholarship that take a lot of money and resources. i really don't think those models are sustainable or helpful especially for first year grad students in ph.d. programs who are contemplating lives outside the academy. and more, it cracks me up that i was asked to do this panel in AC considering that when i applied to american culture over 15 years ago for grad school, i was summarily rejected. now i am supposed to be giving these students advice on how to land work and how to shape their dissertations. oh. the curveballs. am i on a situation comedy or a reality tv show and i don't know it?

one of my former students, an undergrad, came to the talk today. she wrote a nice email to me privately after, but she said something really funny to me. maybe you will find it funny too?

It was great seeing you today and really interesting to see you outside of your role as a professor. I saw that (like Juanita Harrison) you have many layers and you too have "hustle skills" that you use to navigate life. I thank you for sharing.

on monday night, i had the most amazing most restful night of slumber that i have had in months. i overslept by a lot, but work up from a sweet dream about snuggling with acquaintances and i had such a sense of well-being. this has since faded, but it was nice while it lasted on tuesday. perhaps it was the pema chodron cd that i played as i went to sleep?

i think it was not because of the lecture i attended. on monday afternoon, i went along to hear clarissa sligh talk on her work "jake in transition". i just loved hearing her talk about her work and after she agreed to sign my copy of reading dick and jane with me.

i like my colleagues here. i like being in ann arbor. even though i feel like i might make a precarious dip into darkness at any moment, i am lucky to be leading this life right now.

tomorrow, my colleague janie gives her tenure talk at the michigan. i am excited and nervous for her. mainly because she is nervous. i cannot imagine having to stand in such grand huge theater and tell my story and show slides of my work but janie can and will. i think that she will do it with grace. like most of the women of a certain age i really admire and tend to be drawn to, she went to a women's college.

tonight, i worked late and nick and rebecca and their lucy were coming to campus. they came to my door and we had a quick chat. their lucy is so fab u lous. my office on north campus overloooks the surface parking lot so i can monitor the comings and goings of my colleagues while i look out the window and daydream. when it is late at night and dark out, i am on display.