happy paczki day

i live in a land of lots of descendants of poles (and i have one close polish-polish colleague). to wit, even my colleagues in center for afroamerican and african studies today included a trivia question about paczki, polish sweets, on the quiz beth prepared for our fat tuesday celebration. (she had a 25 item quiz on "facts" associated with the holiday, NOLA, and other purple green and gold customs). today at noon, we had a celebration in caas to commemorate mardi gras and new orleans and carnivale. beth had us watch an old film about black indians + parades, they cut king cake, and people wore purple, green and gold beads. (no one flashed anyone while i was in the room). i eschewed the beads but was rocking my purple + green metallic shoes that i bought one time while in olde towne between a trip to wendi and a visit with mimi minnick. the shoes were on a clearance rack at tj maxx and they were priced to go (at $7/pair). i distinctly recall telling mimi via cellphone that i was running late because i was trying on mardi gras shoes. she laughed and said get me a pair of nines. so, i took her a pair too as her housewarming/fresh divorce/new baby gift. i wonder if she wears them?; i wear mine annually). at any rate, i relished the totally delicious custard-filled treat that i bought today to support the polish student organization. i tore into it while watching the film, and finalizing my notes on our lecture/activity today about town planning and institution building in central florida. can i just gush that my CAAS students love working with entries from manuscript census of 1900? we had such fun with it today. they were disappointed when i announced that they had to wrap it up today. i had to promise we could continue on thursday -- seriously, enthusiasm over three sheets of the manuscript census for eatonville, florida.

quel dommage! in all of this, i missed rebekah's talk about her ebayaday project. i have such a mad crush on rebekah + nick + their lucy that i like to draw close to hear about their art-making and lives. i also have a mad crush on larissa + ernie's new little daughter, wei wei. i need to stop with my thoughts and musings about wei wei. she is so adorable and more it is so hilarious to see and hear larissa as a mummy that i have developed a keen interest in all things wei wei. sometimes, i listen to larissa's wei wei update and then email christina (who is also infatuated with wei wei) with a report on wei wei's antics du jour. this weekend, wei wei was too dyspeptic to celebrate the lunar new year with the 39 other little chinese girls in her ann arbor play group. i digress.

last night, jeanette, janice and i supported the student salsa organization by dancing for an hour plus in the second floor ballroom in the union. it was totally grand. i rolled in a little tiny late and mistook my pals for being on the set of ashton kutcher's show "beauty and the geek" because the men were, well, off the set of ashton kutcher's "beauty and the geek" except some smelled really good. we laughed and had lots of fun. it wasn't so easy letting my dance partners think that they were leading, but oh well. as it turns out, one of my grad students, rachel, was there too and chortled when she spotted the three of us.

i do not presently have a pet, but i would really like to get a poodle when i move to oxford. i do however, assume that i will not have to pay a special security deposit for lambie, my baby blanket-turned-body pillow that my crafty mother made for me as a joke.

i dreamt recently that i was wrestling jasmine while i wore my legendary fall coat. i was wrestling her hard. ...and then i dreamt that i was in a bunker with meredith viera and diane sawyer. anna nicole smith + nancy grace were there too with their faces painted as very sad clown.

the arm pit rash continues, but i have not shorn my hair or tattooed any part of my body.