ten days in may

i unplugged from posting. i was distracted by work and graduation and classes and moving plans et al. and by verbal sparring between elisabeth filarski hasselback + rosie o'donnell.

i think that this summer's plans have emerged much more clearly.

a couple of weeks in michigan now...with a very quick train trip to chicago next weekend to hang out with karen + twig and to go to ethan's second birthday party.

the following weekend, i will go along to my colleague dorceta's environmental justice conference. i am not presenting anything, but she has me moderating a session on urban green spaces. [do you tenure-track guys put those kinds of things on your CVs? on your faculty activity reports?]

then, miss bird comes for a weekend in traverse city at neahtawnata inn.

then, in the week following off to d.c./bmore for two-ish week tour of east coast. a visit, during which i hope to see d.c. metro-based pals and those with their new babies, and i will head south to atlanta for us social forum. then back to d.c. for fourth of july week -- likely in georgetown @ M+M's and then to bmore to pack the pod. (thanks for the advice ---> the pods situation sorted out to be the best and most convenient way to move this time).

then shelley, karen and i are aiming to hang out in the middlewest with possible excursions to eric + greg's cabin and to decemerbists and wait wait don't tell me briefly before i pack up ann arbor life in the end of july.

august 1: arrive in college corner.

august 21: first day of my two classes.

in the meantime, i am working on my syllabi for the next year, writing some stuff, teaching the housing class, twirling my hair, contemplating an early exit from my ABC contract, etc. etc.


i hope all this travel will not be as grueling as my last trip to bmore in which i missed the appropriate window for my flight, and sat in the detroit nwa.com terminal for 10 hours while all the other outbound flights were oversold. finally, i met my very tired, tense father at the airport amid a crush of preakness patrons after midnight. i ended up sleeping a lot of the next day, but got to spend the evening at patrick and tracy's house playing with the kids and participating in a dance party with patrick and wayne in their kitchen. my parents hosted a huge family graduation party for me at snyder lane. the weekend culminated in my graduation on monday morning in college park. a quick, brief ceremony, and back on the road. in the early p.m., dashed off to the airport only to sit for three hours buckled into the DC-9 bucket on the tarmac. my return flight was cancelled. i ended up spending the night -- my graduation night in a hotel with rev. run and his family on MTV only to wake up at 3:30 to catch the shuttle to catch the next flight. i was rumpled and exhausted.

but not so dr. benjamin carson who was also bumped from bmore to detroit.

as i learned later that morning upon my return while drooling during the lunchtime local news, that distinguished gentleman in first class who remained totally gracious and placid while our other passengers were showing their asses was the world famous pediatric neurosurgeon: benjamin carson, md. he was returning to detroit to participate in a major event for school children where he urged them to hit the books and to stay in school.

i wish that mtv would make a series, doc ben's house. somehow i think that dr. carson doesn't sit in a bubbly hot tub and type rhyming platitudes into his blackberry at the end of each day? and i bet he doesn't fret whether treach will think he is still fresh.