Julie Storer: Johnson City to Cambridge

I got two hours of sleep last night after staying up to put the final touches on my Campus Improvement Plan and Student Handbook. Both were due yesterday, but with the last-minute interviews, hiring, even a two-day tech training I had scheduled myself to facilitate before my acceptance into the RYHT Leadership Program, the drafts I presented in our administrators meeting were extremely rough. I sent the last email to my secretary with a list of work that needed to be done in my absence at about 2:30am, paid the bills online that would be due while I'm gone and then crashed until the alarm went off at 5am.

Luckily my husband was driving me into the city to catch my plane and I was at my gate with a breakfast taco and coffee with 30 minutes to spare. I used the time to call my friend and co-worker (my bosses' secretary) and thank her for the sandwich she had bought me for lunch yesterday that I ate for dinner around 6 last night -- so much for visiting over lunch! The last thing I did before I turned off my phone to board was to text my boss -- Superintendent David Shanley -- just a quick "I'm off - thanks for letting me go!"

I spent the time in flight reviewing the pre-institute materials and getting more and more enthused about the upcoming week. I had put off the pre-reading assignments just because I had so many loose ends to tie up on campus before leaving, so I read thru the articles and started on Elmore's School Reform from the Inside Out.

On arriving in Boston I got my bags, then decided to make the most of the whole Cambridge experience (quite a different setting from Johnson City, Texas) so I found a schedule and map for the T, hopped on the airport shuttle to the Government Springs station and successfully navigated transitions from the Blue Line to the Green Line to the Red Line which put me on the front steps of the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square. I checked in, got into my running gear and set out to locate the Currier House Dormitory, our general meeting place for the Institute, and the Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) where most of our classes are to be held. I ended seeing most of Cambridge, although never found what I was looking for. I enjoyed the workout, the delicious deli sandwich I bought on the way back, and the beautiful architechture of the city, but returned to The Charles unsure of where I needed to go in the morning for registration.

Julie Storer