I Now Understand FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Because I am Missing Out. But I Am Beginning the Teacher Institute Today, and It's All Good

Sue McV knows how to rub it in. 

All day yesterday I received photos of her in Kentucky hiking with Chitunga, eating ice cream with Chitunga, and even going out to dinner with Chitunga and Dave. What's worse is she took him to Nam Huynh's Eatz - Vietnamese Restaurant. Nam was in the graduating class of 2007, my last year for teaching at the Brown School. He's since become a culinary genius and able to feed all those that love and cherish good Vietnamese food (like me...and I couldn't be there).

I spent 14-hours yesterday working on today, the opening day for the teacher institute. Whereas K-12 educators have been face-to-face for months (in masks, of course), the University has lived by a different set of rules. Those of us on campus on a given day can be counted on two hands and two feet. This is just to say that the normalcy of getting normal summer operations underway is definitely not happening. I am just holding my breath and doing the best that I can. We were given incredible space in the Dolan School of Business and the facility is ridiculously nice. Alas, not sure where to print items or if I can get the technology to work. It failed yesterday.

As always, the teachers are my focus. It is such a pleasure to gift them with the National Writing Project tradition, good books, awesome pedagogy, leadership opportunities, and never-ending stimulation. It is professional development that works every time. 

Still, how great would it be to have summer off to travel to see Sue and Dave, too?

It's all good. I am now on a 9 pm bedtime and 6 am wake-up time for the next month (and it's been a while, because there was no teacher institute last summer). 

We got this. It's not noodle soup or a spring roll, but it suffices.