who has seen my new building at m.i.t?: "je"

i have many many hilarious things to type about this conference. but in brief, i killed. and if you subscribe to the world view of miss bird and me and ratchet down low enough personal expectations, one will never be disappointed.

i learned my social/party skills at the knee of many people, including and most certainly my mutha, who is hostess extraordinaire, but also, i learned to go along to fancy dress suppers and to make intelligent small talk while i studied in oxford, a year in england that is so totally precious and important that i call upon all the time and i forget how hard my parents worked to send me there. and how hard i worked in the merry go round clothing factory and in house of almonds that summer when i was my mother's little norma rae exhorting the line workers to reject our bonus 15 minutes on wednesday and the free donuts on friday.

first of all, depending upon whom you ask, i either looked like an architect (an accusation by planning faculty) or viola swamp (an affectionate memory, i think, by one of my grad students).

i wore my fortunesque black miyake get up and black tights and black pointy pointy boots. i had to wear a black tank top because the rash was killing me and i needed easy access to itch. however, i did have the presence of mind to take with me the anti-itch menthol powder that sweet and wonderful wendi suggested to me years ago when i was in therapy with her. i also wore the bright blue necklace that riley and reese gave me for christmas.

i made about a dozen jokes during the session i moderated with grace and aplomb. my new boyfriend: pat nostrum. my new favorite meal: paella. my new crushes: teddy cruz, liane lefevre and ann spirn. my new fan: harrison fraker (because in one sitting i offered him ecstasy, midol, and his own blackberry).

things that bother me:

1. starfuckers
2. people who attended exeter
3. men who go on and on and on way fucking over the time limit
4. people who relied on the kindness of [BLACK] porters while on the train between major metropoles in their youths.
5. people who flout rules, carry beverages into drink-free-zones, and then especially those who proceed to spill the aforementioned contraband into brand-fucking-new computers.

funny moments today that i will expand upon at some point:

1. when teddy cruz explained that he should be more like michael sorkin and seize the moment instead of asking for more time. he elaborated, "i do this because i am from guatemela."
   
2. when i joked about the 4Ps being a bar not a conference.
3. when i observed that susan was the first woman i ever heard at an academic conference who commented on the toilet room from the dais.
4. when i enumerated all the others Ps at the conference. and mentioned bovine flatulence, human waste, preening palestinians, polshek partners, and platitudes all in one sentence from the podium.
5. when lance brown asked about the smell inside my SUV-ette. i explained that it was the smell of my morning sushi and michael sorkin exclaimed: i love the smell of sushi in the morning.

indeed.

oh, and i am so soundly back in ann arbor. when i went to my local bodega, which might not actually be a bodega in an auto-dependent environ, i picked up my spicy sushi, but rejected the edible flowers in the very same case. that is so ann arbor for you. freshly rolled sushi (five kinds before 10 a.m.) and an assortment of purple and blue-ish edible flowers individually wrapped and ready to grab and go.

exactly.