one correction and random musings

ok so first of all mandy, the nyu law student i met at that lesbian feminism panel, her blog is actually:

http://bananarchist.blogspot.com

i reported the wrong address in my last post. duh. and also check out this small world. jes and i met up niki to play catch at prospect park for minute b/c jes has been working like crazy making some outline for contracts (no i am not sure what that means). anywho the three of us are playing catch and talking smack and i hear "hey is that you donna" and i look and its this woman sandy, who i met at IDKE in winnipeg last weekend. her drag name is charleston chu (how fucking hilarious is that?) and she performs with the transformers from san francisco (where she used to live) but is now in brooklyn living while she does an internship for her psychology degree. anywho we chatted for a minute in winnipeg and realized we lived about five blocks from each other. we discussed the lack of vibrant drag king culture presently in nyc and i suggested we hang out. i even had her piece of paper with her info on the top of the pile of stuff i am going to deal with today. and lo and behold, there she is at prospect park walking her adorable "nod yer head" dog named theo. so that is cool, right?

but it gets even cooler. she is walking the park with her dog and her friend on a bike named sally. well it just so happens that sally has just moved her from san fran as well. why did she move? oh she moved to start LAW SCHOOL at cuny. so jes and niki and her spoke legalese for a minute and they invited her to the homo law student party that brooklyn law is having next week. yeah new friends! i also invited them to jes's bday party. and sandy invited us to her housewarming party. go parties go parties. anywho the full circle craziness of this all is that i just got an email from mandy letting me know i reported her blog address incorrectly (maybe i can get her to read my diss chapters too, she clearly has an eye for detail. i mean her blog says she is having a hard time sleeping....) anywho i wrote her back thanking her for letting me know and then told her about jes's homo law party. clearly the revolution is beginning and its gonna be filled with queer lawyers, drag kings, and lesbian feminists. hell to the yizzah.

oh yeah: happy halloween, happy 30th bday to higgins this past sunday, AND happy bday to my yoga friend angie this past saturday.

drag kings, moving and lesbian feminism part III

now before i talk about lesbian feminism, i want to talk about the men in new york.
see, i have made friends with this car service guy named tommy. he always calls me "beautiful" or "sweetheart" and the cable guy called me "sweetheart" and then today when we got our membership at the YMCA, the membership guy kept calling me and jes "sweetheart." I have to say each time this happens I am taken aback. There is this old school feminist in me that wants to be like "look DUDE i am not your sweetheart OR your beautiful." But I am not sure they mean it with disrespect, I think that is what the young guys say around here. I still don't know what to do with it. I mean I could say it back but then I feel like they would think I am flirting with them, which I am not. Anywho, if any of yall have any suggestion or analysis of this phenomenon, please let me know.

i am very excited about being part of the Y. I think it is a great organization. I mean i *know* this, but after the tour mr. sweetheart gave us, I felt even better about being a part of it. Of course it is an affordable place for folks to live, and there are all these great kids' classes and one can workout and be healthy there, so I love that. But I also love that there is a FREE computer room with FREE printing for community folks. That is some good shit in my humble opinion. On my walk home from the Y I stopped to get a cup of decaf coffee at Tea Lounge and then headed to the dollar store on the corner to buy some Halloween candy. It all sucked so I got jes some fruit waters instead. And now I am home, watching PBS and finishing my blogging.

So about lesbian feminism. I went to this event in the city sponsored by CLAGS (the center for lesbian and gay studies). This is an organization that offers these fellowships for queer work. I applied last year and did not get one. I may apply again this year. My friend Sarah also applied last year and wouldn't you know it, she got one! Go Sarah! Go Sarah! Anywho it was this set of panels about the history and present of lesbian feminism from 1970-2005. The afternoon was broken into four parts. Part 1: Culture, Part 2: Culture, Part 3: Sex and Part 4: Movement Building. I was nervous to go b/c this is the academic/ social community I would love to be a part of. There is all kinds of great queer and feminist work coming out of the center and I would just love to have a working relationship with the folk. So the first thing I worried about is what to wear. I knew I couldn't rock my pyjamas though they are my favorite. I wanted to wear jeans but I also want these folks to not see me as a graduate student so much, but more as a future faculty member or future post doc/fellow. So I just wore some casual courdroy like pants and a black turtleneck sweater. I was also nervous b/c I didn't know anyone and would have no one to talk to or be friends with. And then there is always the worry of getting lost when I travel into the city.

Well, I made it to the building with only one wrong turn and as I was getting onto the elevator to go to the ninth floor I felt a tap on my shoulder and who did I see? Jennifer Terry. Yeah, that Jennifer Terry, the rock star academic who is now at U of California-Irvine. She edited this book Deviant Bodies and authored another book called An American Obsession. She was at Ohio State when I was there and was very supportive of the drag king activity there. She had just flown into NYC that morning b/c her sweetie was on the panel. So it was nice that I got to chat with her. She is very generous with her time b/c I know a bunch of folks wanted to chat with her at this event.

The event itself was interesting. First of all, there was all these old lesbians there. I mean like 70 and 80 years old. There were these lovely old butches with silver flat tops and buzz cuts. And everyone had such histories to tell. I felt honored to be in their presence. I mean there were these lesbians that were my mom and my gramma's age. It's so weird b/c I just don't have too much exposure to older queer folks really. I mean I have one committee member who is a lesbian and is maybe in her fifties but that is really it. That makes me a bit sad really. I know I can learn a lot from them, but they also have their little groups and I feel like they don't necessarily agree with all my politics or just think I am some young whippersnapper who doesn't know better. And when you are 32 years old, that can get frustrating. I was excited to see what Cheryl Clarke and E.Francis White looked like. I didn't really know of any of the other folks. I also chatted with two women who were more my age. One was a history graduate student from Columbia University and the other, whose name is Mandy I think facilitated the panel on the Body. She is a first year law student at NYU. Her blog is www.bananarchist.com
Check it out-she is smart and very funny. I want Jes to meet her b/c I think they could be lawyer friends.

So overall, I am glad I went b/c I need to get back into an academic community. Being here is great b/c I have the time to write and all, but I do feel a bit isolated. It was also great to see Jenny Terry. Lastly, it was educational to hear what older lesbians think about young lesbian or queer feminist activists. Some think there is no movement (this of course frustrated me) while others are so overwhelmed or have been out of the movement for a while and want to get reconnected. It became clear to me that somehow us younger activists MUST connect with these older activist. I am sure it is happening somewhere in this city. I just gotta find it.

Ok Larry has already begun his incessant "where is jes" meowing. It makes me a little nuts. It may also be his "i want dinner" meow. Yeah its almost 5pm so that must be it.

drag kings, moving & lesbian feminism part II

so about the drag kings....

I went to the Seventh International Drag King Extravaganza (IDKE 7) in Winnipeg, Canada last weekend. I left New York on Thursday morning and arrived into Winnipeg around dinner time. I had to go through Canadian customs with this card that I filled out saying my visit was for business (I *was* going to give a paper at the conference-regardless of the drag shows throughout the weekend) and then they asked me what business I was in. I told them I was going for an academic conference, so I guess my business is the business of learning. The lady asking me the questions didn't think that was so funny. I thought it was hilarious.

So this year Winnipeg included an airport pick up option which was great. I got picked up by these two darling young women. I asked them what they did (thinking they were college students). Nope, they are *high school* seniors. How cute is that? Their names were Jessica and Tessa. Here is a picture of me and Jessica:



She is 17 and word on the street is she got lucky on Saturday night. I have no *proof* of this, its just what I heard.

So the two darlings dropped me off at my hotel the Ramada Inn. It was this gorgeous old building that looked very fancy. The rooms were not that fancy but that was ok. There was some serious pot smoking going on on floor 4 (the floor I was on). I mean seriously I got a contact high. I think it was the young folks staying across the hall. The other hilarious thing was that there was some sort of conference for filipino ladies in our hotel. So there was this juxtaposition of very queer folks from IDKE, filipina ladies and pot smoking young white kids. good times.

the weekend, as always, was outstanding and terribly exhausting. jes didn't come with me this year so i was flying solo, but luckily, my friend mel was without her sweetie too so we roomed together. it was great to have a friend to process with through the weekend. mel is on the steering committee with me so along with having fun, this weekend is about meetings and administrative crap, so we shared the pain of that. there were some great numbers both at dragdom and the showcase. the showcase took place in this lovely old theater that was literally across teh street from my hotel. actually everything was within walking distance which totally rocked even though it was so cold. the cold made you hustle. anywho the theatre was divine and the emcees were these hilarious women called the lesbian rangers. for more information you can go to:

http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/current/artgallery/lesbianrangers/

they are these two performance artists who do this sort of stand up. i mean hilarious. here is a picture of some of us with one of the rangers, who is "undercover":



from left to right that is quid pro quo and thatway from DC, the ranger and the the big headed one up front is me (ugh).
thatway did this amazing number at dragdom about race and blackness. very creative and very theatrical.

here is a picture of mel with the ranger:



now next year IDKE 8 will take place in austin, texas. i am very excited about this for two reasons:
1. this will be the first time that IDKE has gone to the southern united states. i am very proud it has finally made it there
2. austin is a great troupe. they are smart, professional, and well to be shallow- incredibly hot. here are some photos of them:



the two on the left got married on sunday morning. how cool is that?

more austin:



they did a number in the showcase about being trans and trans violence that made me cry. it was very personal and honest and very beautiful. i am so glad they are hosting next year. and i am also thrilled IDKE finally made it to canada. winnipeg was a lovely city and the folks there were so nice. as a host city they added a number of aspects to IDKE and I really think they did a great job. overall, it was a good time.

i am most excited by some of the newish and upcoming troupes. i am loving the kings from tuscon, arizona and i am hoping they consider hosting IDKE some time. there were also these sweet young things from vancouver. seriously, they looked really young. one of them, bless his heart, approached me at dragdom (which took place friday night-the same day mel and i did our workshop on drag and politics). anywho this one king came up to me and told me he thought the fact that i was so well spoken and opinionated was really sexy. how cute is that? here is a picture of him and me:



lastly, here is a pic of this king from omaha, nebraska who rewrote a number of eminem's songs to make him queer and performed them at dragdom. he had lots of great ideas for moving IDKE forward into the future. i think he is adorable:



ok i have more to say and more pics but jes is ready to go the YMCA to get our membership. more on IDKE and lesbian feminism later.

drag kings, moving & lesbian feminism part I

**ok yall i am overwhelmed by all the catch up i need to do on this blog, so i am going to split it into three more manageable parts. i will start with the moving**

i have been away from home for a week and it is taking me a minute to get back in the swing of things. i got to the apartment about 7:30pm last night, got some hot diggity dog and watch alias and my tape of IDKE with jes. all i wanted to do was sit with my honey on the couch in my pyjamas and relax. i got to do just that.

i spent from sunday night until thursday morning in colorado springs with my sister kath, her husband greg and their baby boy ben. they are in the process of building a new house and selling their old house. they close on monday so i went out there to help them pack up and move to a temporary rental house. even though it was a lot of work, my lower back is wrecked and i have more bruises than you can shake a stick at, i had a nice time. first of all, it was so sunny and warm there i got a little color in my face and on my arm. secondly, i know my sister and greg really appreciated my help and my presence. thirdly, i got to get some serious nephew love from ben. he is like six feet tall (not really but he is a tall boy) and smart and talkative. here is a picture of him with his favorite toy: my toothbrush and toothbrush holder.



he calls me nana or donna, calls all trucks and cars "diggers" or "digger doos" and instead of yes or yeah, he says something like "yeah huh." he also has little white pebble teeth and apparently likes to bite (he gets that from me). here is kath, greg and ben in front of their rental home:



it was hard to say goodbye to my colorado family, but the fact that they visit over thanksgiving made it a bit easier. i talked to my sister yesterday and she said they don't like the rental house as much when i am not in it. isn't that nice?

ok onto drag kings....

a busy few days

i come at you from the bowels of brooklyn law school library. jes and her friends max and niki are reading big thick books and getting smarter with every minute. me, i am blogging.

so today i went up to columbia university to meet with someone for my job. she and another faculty member will be traveling to emory for a panel i am coordinating at the end of april. it was nice to chat with her face to face and i think we got some good ideas started for the panel. i feel a bit at ease that i have pretty much secured all the folks involved. i also feel pretty good that my new black teacher boots are comfy and warm. good purchase donna. not only did i get to play professional person who works outside of the bat cave today, i also got to have lunch with my friend higgins who has a real JOB at Columbia on the Health Sciences campus (something with HIV training I think). It was great to see her and where she worked and pretend that we are both very serious professionals with our trousers and sweaters. if only they knew not three days ago we were nasty women laughing at endless body humor. which is a great segue to my next paragraph...

on sunday jes, higgs and i went to this ladyfest east event. it was really nice. we sat and talked and bought some stuff. higgs got a homemade card with a pig on it. she loves pigs. i don't know why. i got a homemade card with a flying cat on it. i sent it to my friend mary. i also got this killer skirt. it is black with blue piping and on the bottom there is a quote from bell hooks about feminism STITCHED IN. yeah you are so fucking jealous. i mean seriously its so cool it has motivated me to wear a skirt in the first place. i plan to wear it for jes's bday party i am planning at our apartment. i need to hit the gym a bit before that b/c it is a little tight. not terrible, but i would like room enough that i can eat and sit comfortably in it. the woman who made it is enid crow, or at least that is the brand. you can check out her stuff at www.enidcrow.com

aside from that we also made friends with the bartendress who tried out a few new mixed drinks on us. the bar the event was at had root beer ON TAP. yeah, pretty cool. so she mixed up some rb and whiskey (not as bad as it sounds) and rb and vanilla vodka (worse than you could ever imagine) needless to say i was feeling very good when we left the bar. higgs went one way on the train and we the other. then we realized the train was not going to take us where we wanted to go b/c of construction so we got off and had hopes of getting on a bus. needless to say, that never happened. remember how in my last post i talked about walking home from grand army plaza and how it would make me cry? well in fact, it will not b/c we walked from beyond grand army plaza. it was a cool crisp night, i was with the one i love and i had a bit of a tipsy happy on. so why not? we stopped for pizza along the way which actually made me feel quite sick later on in the evening, but it was a good time overall.

earlier in that day we went into the city and went shopping. i got a bed skirt for our bed, which i was sure was the wrong size UNTIL i turned it the other way. hard to believe i may actually get my phd soon, isn't it? jes- imagine this- got a pair of shoes. grey pumas with a little yellow on them. they were basically 50% of the price we had seen them at a few months ago so i encouraged her to get them. they are adorable on her. i also got some new low rise boy panties at american eagle b/c the pair i was wearing the other day (they were from target) had a hole in them. i felt that was a sign to get some new ones. i think that is all i got. oh and a postcard for my friend kim with jesus offering a pizza to a family. how hilarious is that?

once these esquires get done reading their large red and blue books we are going to get some fish tacos. HELL TO THE YIZZAH and then i am going to go home and get out of these teacher clothes and into some pyjamas- my uniform of choice.

i don't know if you all have heard about this powerball in connecticut and pennsylvania- i think it is up to like $340 million dollars. i may drive to connecticut tomorrow and get a ticket or two. look birthday girl kim, your new job is coming and seriously, if we win that much, you may need only work one day a week. boomshakalaka.

same old shit, different day

not too much going on here at the brooklyn bat cave. i have been slowly working on my diss chapter, had a bit of a spell on friday which consisted of random allergies and a lot of moping on the couch. i did watch my gfriend jodi in the movie panic room. you know she was several months pregnant when she filmed that? that is why her bosoms looked so divine.

yesterday jes and i went to the library at her school and did a bunch of work. i really got quite a bit done on the chapter. i plan to finish it up as much i can there again this morning and then take one last look at it and send it off to the committee tomorrow. i mean i need to move forward and stop dilly dallying (as my mom would say). its sort of exciting but it also make me want to hurl. whatev, they probably won't read it anyway.

last night jes and i went to greenpoint/williamsburg to pick up this picture from this artist guy. me,jes, sarah and kim got it for higgins for her 30th bday. it was a nice adventure and he was a nice guy. he had this new puppy named jameson who liked to hump his orange cat. he said the orange cat didn't mind but while we were there the orange cat raised holy hell every time the dog came near. go figure. after that we went to barcade where jes played video crack, er, arkanoid. i played two pityful games of centipede and gave up. it was way too crowded for my tastes. and of course, being the dork i am, i began to think about constructing a study to find out who plays what games, looking at gender and race. race would be pretty hard b/c it was almost all white, so maybe just gender. yes, this is how i spend my saturday nights yall. after barcade we headed on a long journey up to grand army plaza, which really isn't all that far from our house but is pretty far from barcade. anywho we were meeting niki for some party that was a friend of a friends. it was in this area called prospect heights. i really liked it. the apartment was sort of dorm like on the outside and really nice on the inside. three bedrooms-one big one upstairs with a bathroom, living room and kitchen and then two more bedrooms downstairs. and the rent was only $1500. i was falling over! it was just nice to know that there are other places that are nice and affordable. i worry that we will never find something as good as we have now and i think i am just being ridiculous, you know? the party got broken up by the neighbors so we headed to this bar with the kids, but just peed and then headed home. we got SO LUCKY because the 69 bus came right by and we caught it. it dropped us off just a block from our hizzouse. nice. because if i had to walk home from there (even though it was just on the other side of the park) i may have started to cry. not really.

the other highlight to my week was supper club. we had it at our house for the first time, and i think it went well. first of all, i had planned a meal of pasta and chicken (for the meat eaters) and thought it would be lovely to eat out in the backyard. well mother nature shat on nyc for the last week with cold and miserable rain. so the outside was not an option. then i saw two of the supper clubbers at barnes and noble in the city the other night and they said chili sounded perfect, so i changed the menu to the now famous rachel ray chili recipe that kim and sarah made in maine. well, suffice it to say, the chili was a huge hit among the kids. and everyone loved the corncakes jes made too. i started with a nice cheese plate with hummus and olives and we drank red and white wine and some lemonade too. for dessert i originally planned a nice berry shortcake, but apparently mid october is not berry season in the nyc, so instead i made some toffee brownies from a box, whipped up a little homemade whipped cream and put some raspberries on top of that. on of the sup clubbers named kim (she dates glennda) was hilarious when she boldly took two brownies to better support her mound of whipped cream. while we were finishing up the chili our kitchen was about 200 degrees, so we cracked every window we could and turned on the fan. i figure it was a chili supper club/sweat lodge. good times.

our next sup club isn't until november some time, but i hope i get to hang with them before that. a number of them travel a lot for their jobs so it can be hard to try and catch them in town. but i guess i travel quite a bit as well. actually i head to winnipeg this thursday for the seventh international drag king extravaganza or IDKE 7. i am going without jes which makes me sad, but i think it is good b/c it will force me to chat it up with folks more. and my friend mel is going sans sweetie, so we can be bachelors together. i have a bunch of work to do still for the twelve thousand meetings i have there, but i think i will get it done before thursday.

ok jes is ready to head to the library so i should get my teeth brushed and my contacts in. it is a lovely sunny day in brooklyn. what more could you ask for.

a few upcoming birthdays:

my friend kim from atlanta has a bday on tuesday, october 18th. when i win the lottery she is going to run my foundation and only work two days a week.

my best friend azad has his bday on thursday, october 20th. i hope he likes his present this year. i always get him these wack presents that he returns. he always gets me these amazing presents that i treasure for my life. like for graduation from my masters he got me this great north face back pack i still use today. and for this past bday he got me a bunch of smart wool socks that i love and oh my gosh the best pair of slippers you could ever have. they are uggs yall, and i love them. for reals.

happy bday to them both. i love them and miss them terribly.

rain rain go away come back some other day

well it is grey, gloomy and rainy here in brooklyn and i tell you that sure does not motivate me to write my dissertation. i got out this morning and moved the car to a non street cleaning side, stopped at the post office and then got some thank you cards at the hallmark. before i write out thank you cards to all the folks that helped with my work event, i am going to try and clock a few hours on the dissertation. i did a little writing this morning on the midwestern regional scholarship stuff, and then i have to do the tying together stuff and go back and fix it up stuff. i hope i can get this printed up and sent off to the committee by friday. i need to be moving forward at a quicker clip. right now i feel like moving toward my bed for a nap.

so instead of dwell on the gloominess that is this tuesday in new york, i will recount the glory of the weekend- with pictures, of course. so the trip back to brooklyn from atlanta was fairly uneventful. our flight hit some turbulence so the captain would not let the drink carts come out. this made kim and sarah very sad b/c they were both counting on a diet coke. other than that, we made it ok. when we got back to the apartment, we dropped off our stuff and headed right to joe's pizza. both sarah and kim quickly fell in love with the deliciousness that is joe's, and they each got a diet pepsi (unfortunately, this is pepsi land). after lunch we walked around the neighborhood doing a little window shopping and getting a sense of the neighborhood. we stopped at the superhero supply store on 5th ave. and sarah and kim tried on these very effective disguises. can you even tell that its them?



we met up with jes at her school with hopes of getting some brooklyn law tshirts for them, but alas, the bookstore was closed. so we walked up to the promenade and looked at the lovely view. here they are in front of the manhattan skyline:



that evening we had a birthday dinner for kim at de vincenzo. i got the delicious penne alla vodka, jes got some pasta with veggies, kim got pesto and sarah got some pasta with brie and bacon. we also shared a lovely bottle of australian pinot noir. sarah and i suffered from a little indigestion, but after a little tonic water, we were good to go. we headed to cattyshack to show them how lovely a bar it is. it was really really dead so we had a few drinks and then headed to gingers (which is on the way home). things were HOPPING there because of (thank god) karoake. altogether it was incredibly painful. this one ahole did prince's "darling nikki" which was exciting because sarah lives for prince and our friend niki was with us. but alas, he was horrendous. i begged jes to go up to him and give him a ten dollar bill to stop. she wouldn't so my ears just bled through the whole song (not really but it was that bad yall). some cute girl gave me and niki a piece of delicious vegan chocolate cake with cherry frosting, i guess it was her friend's bday. jes played a little erotic photo hunt with kim and sarah, niki and darelle played pool and then we headed out. oh and it must also have been the make out/fuck in the back room night at gingers b/c there were all kinds of couples: young and old basically doing it in front of us. overall it was pretty gross, but what made it worse was this guy just sitting across from us watching it all. i mean STARING. i was like if his hand goes to his pants someone will get a beatdown. it did not.

we slept in a bit the next morning, got a bagel and headed off to maine for the weekend de relaxation. the trip there was hilarious. a few highlights:

1. kim screaming b/c some dude next to us was yanking on his weenie and honking his horn at us. the whole car screams while i try to avoid crashing into anyone.

2. so much traffic that it took over 8 hours when it should have taken 6 hours

3. stopping at every megaplex filled with more junk food than you can shake a stick at and sarah saying "don't they have any boiled peanuts up in here? what kind of truck stop is this?"

4. finally getting to portland, maine and doing our grocery shopping to JUST make the 8:30 pm ferry across to peaks island. we decided to pay and have our car go across with us rather than schlepping all our bags and groceries by hand. very good choice as it was rainy and cold.

kim and sarah were stunned at the beauty of the higgins "cottage." when we got there the fire was a roaring and everyone was chilling in the living room. baby bailey was already asleep (oh i wanted to wake him up) so we got to spend some quality time with dawn and gator. we made some frozen pizzas, ate some dips, and drank some wine. i was in the bed asleep by midnight.

the next morning muzzy and tony made a divine brunch that consisted of crepes (savory and sweet). the savory was eggs and spinach and cheese and the sweet was like bananas and dulce de leche or something. it was hella good all around. here they are making the eats:



after breakfast we chatted and played some. jes and i have commenced operation crawl for bailey. we kept putting things out of reach for him and encouraged him to crawl to it. he does this adorable downward dog thing and then gets back to the ground. because he is exceptional, we think he may go right to walking. here he is laughing at some hilarious joke i made:



and here he is after one too many miller lites:



and after all those miller lites, he really needed a bath, so dawn and gator threw him in the kitchen sink:



by that time i was tuckered out so i took a nap, as did many other folks in the house. higgins, of course, went for a run around the island in the rain cuz she is cool like that. then when everyone emerged rested, and in some cases, showered, we began to eat, drink and be merry again.

here are some pretties:





so higgins folks came over to the island to partake in kim and sarah's DELICIOUS dinner of veggie chili on top of scrumptous greenonion corn cakes. it was so good yall and i did not even get sick from all the beans. YAHOO! and then for dessert we had this strawberry cake higgs folks brought over. since i had been eating sugar and junk all day it pretty much put me into a a diabetic coma. here is higgs with her folks and baby b:



after her folks went back to the mainland, the beer and wine flowed and we got into a pretty exciting game of taboo. the other team won by the hair of their chinny chin chin. i clearly had telepathic connection with my teammates muzz and gator as i got some of their words with just one descriptive word. after that we played popular culture trivial pursuit which higgins insisted she "sucked" at. she basically won every clue that got them a puzzle piece and therefore they won. by that time i was so tired i didn't care who won, i just wanted to go to sleep. some of the kids stayed up after that but i was fast asleep.

the next morning we ate some breakfast, chatted some more and then packed up to go home. here is a picture of the whole group before we left:



not a bad looking bunch? is it?

anywho, our trip back to brooklyn was pretty chill. kim and i had cramps so we took little naps. sarah read trashy mags and informed us about the latest in britney, jessica and jennifer aniston's lives. we dropped them off at laguardia and came home and had burritos and watched some television. i was sad to say goodbye to everyone because it was so nice to escape to this island paradise and just be with each other. now its back to the daily grind.

oh bother.

a quick post before everyone wakes up

so today is the first day in a couple since i have been here in atlanta that i need not wake up worried because my work event is over. i did the best i could, the folks imparted the knowledge and ate some food and all i need to think about is going back home with my friend sarah and kim in tow? toe? whatever, with me. so why then am i writing to you dear reader at 6:55am? i don't know. i can't sleep, so i figured while i could lay and stress out in the nicest, whitest, fluffiest guest bed i have ever slept in, i could also get up, write some work emails and do a quick little posty post.

my time in the atl has been divine. staying with sarah and kim has been so nice because i would get to come home (to their house) and just hang out with them. it was sort of like an extended sleep over. and yesterday when i got home so tired at 10pm (i had a lovely indian dinner with my friend kir, which was great, but after a long day of work and TWO, count them TWO heinekens, i was beat) i was overjoyed to find sarah and kim's puppy mrs. ru ru (aka ruthie) with her orange and blue brooklyn shirt on. this dog LOVES to wear clothes. my favorite thing she wears is a red hoody. i should get her a brooklyn hoody. i wonder if they make them for dogs. now on my list of things to look into. anywho, ru ru was adorable, kim was quickly falling asleep on the couch (she works like 30 hours a day- its ridiculous) and so sarah and i got to watch the worse episode of svu something i have ever seen. who told ice t he could act? and when oh when will he cut that ridiculous ponytail off? i mean for the love of god and all that is good, cut it off ice.

i got to have lunch with my friend molly (everybody's pizza- i got a mini olive pizza she got a gargantuan salad that she ate 1/4 off) and my other friend stacia (i got sushi at cox hall on campus, she got pizza). and then last night sarah, kim and i met up with our friends angie and elin at the gravity pub and oogled and googled (looked at, not looked up online) at the hot server ashley. perhaps i should call her hot ashley (like hot donna on that 70s show). well hot ashley said something about her hair color and how she has to dye the grey out. and i was like "wow how old are you b/c you look to young to have grey hair" (i was also secretly doing recon work for the table to find out how much younger she is than us). she explained she has had grey hair since she was 22. then the rest of the table talked about their grey hairs to which i replied "i think grey hair is sexy, i can't wait to get some" kim gave me the finger (for not having grey hair) and then hot ashley said "well i am not sure grey hair is all that sexy on me" to which i replied "i am certain everyone at this table thinks it is" she laughed like the little coy vixen she is and promptly walked to the next table. i think she wants us.

overall, my work thing was a success. i had a bit of spell when i found out the faculty member from stanford had to cancel his lecture here at emory on tuesday b/c his flight was cancelled. i was not in charge of this lecture per se, it was more put on by anthro and school of public health, but it just reminded me that such things can happen and my panel could never show up and i would have to do shadow puppets for the audience. but alas, he made it here just fine and did a great job on the panel too. the panel itself was two teaching center directors and two faculty members. there was one director and faculty from stanford and one faculty and director from university of michigan. so of the four person panel it was one man and three women. and the these three women were all wicked smart, really powerful to be around because of their confidence and poise and all really tall. i mean seriously like six feet. so when i picked them up in my hoopty rental car, it was like who sits in front? because they all had legs for days. i got pretty good feedback from the faculty i talked to about the panel and i know i felt it brought a great deal of important information to emory's campus, so i think it was a good start. and the dinner was nice too. i was a bit stressed b/c they gave us two tables of eight instead of one long table of sixteen, but a number of attendees said it was good and they loved that it was outside- and luckily it did not rain, so that is good too.

it is raining now in atlanta and i hope that does not affect our flight. or the fact that delta is dumping flights like crazy because they are broke. i just want to get back to brooklyn and eat a slice of joe's pizza. oh i can taste it now.