Two weeks from the time I am writing this, I will be somewhere between Philadelphia and Seattle. I will be attending my first week-long workshop, and I am excited and nervous. When I joined the Leadership Council in 2011, I had no idea of where it would take me. Toronto, Quebec City, Portland (Oregon) and now Seattle... Not exactly the most exotic locations, but then again, I am not really a fan of travel. But I have never been been to Washington before, so I am excited.

I am heading out to the workshop a few days early because it allows me the opportuntity to partake in one of my other interests - baseball. I would like to see a game in every major league stadium. The schedule left me one option, a game on the 24th between the Royals and the Mariners. After that, the Mariners are on a long road trip. I got a cheap (by NY Yankees standards) seat about 15 rows behind home plate. Heading out early gives me some extra free time. I will take a day to drive down to Mt. Rainier which should also be fun. Of course this could be a dumb idea for a person not overly fond of heights (Joanne can attest to the fact that I got a little queasy staring up at the CN Tower in Toronto last summer). Who knows what I will do with my other free time, perhaps photocopy materials for the workshop.

And that brings me to the part of the part of the trip I am equally excited and nervous about, the workshop. We have some really great presenters and I really look forward to hearing them talk. Hopefully I will get a chance to talk with Cliff Kubiak as we have some closely related work going on right now. Our list of participants is wonderful. Some I know pretty well, others I have met once or twice and a few I have never met before. It's going to be a very busy week, but I am excited to work with everyone. And then there are the other LC members. It's like the 1992 USA men's basketball team (the Dream Team) and I am Christian Laettner (it really is a shame that analogy works so well because I really don't like Christian Laettner). Adam Johnson, Nancy Williams, Joanne Stewart, Lori Watson and Anne Bentley...wow, that's a great starting five. But then for overkill we bring in Jeff Raker to talk assessment. Seriously, why am I there? I get to present on electrochemistry, which shouldn't be too bad. I have an activity that hopefully won't be too over the top. I hope it is interesting. I also get to lead a session on mining VIPEr for activities to use in class. I don't think I can mess that up too much. I am sure it will be a great time and I can't wait to see all of the great LOs that come out of this workshop. And in case you were wondering about the title, well, the B-52s have a show in Seattle while we are out there. Maybe it would be a good "IONiC" bonding activity for the LC.

Sorry you are missing out on this workshop? We have one more scheduled at the University of Michigan in 2016. Stay tuned for details.