Channeling All Powers That Be To Give Me a Saturday, a 4th of July, with Rest. Please.

I seriously could post a Covid-Hair photo every day, because I continuously am humored by my morning head. This morning, however, I'm giving in and, to the best of my abilities, plan to take the entire day off.

Chitunga drove up to Syracuse for the weekend, simply because he needed a semblance of normalcy. He's gone to stay with his college roommate, and I was thrilled to learn they were socially distancing with my parents, including a beer with Butch.

Yesterday, we finished week one of Young Adult Literacy Labs: the teaching, the zooming, the writing, the workshopping, the conferencing, the editing, and the reflecting. Of course, every second of it is also data collecting, especially with the online reality for summer programs.

The teachers and I concluded, although it is less face-to-face time with kids (two hours instead of six hours), the planning offline to have a smooth-online experience takes the other 4 hours). I can say that this was appreciated by week one attendees, who unanimously loved their experience - except one kid. He said he hated it. But when I asked him why he put that on the exit survey he replied, "I hate that it was only one week, and I can have you teachers all the time."

Thanks, kid. Now I have to justify the one outlier, who wasn't an outlier, but a shrewd young man.

Next week, we quadruple our programs, so I will be more frenzied. This week, though, I've been working to get time so I can edit the two revisions needing the most attention. Scholarship is the other job, beyond teaching, service, and directing the writing project at Fairfield.

Tanya Baker and I also recorded another epic THE WRITE TIME - phew. It was fantastic, and I can't wait for that to debut in a couple of weeks. They keep getting better and better.

But that photo...this photo...it captures me well. I plan on celebrating my independence on a kayak on the Long Island Sound. I keep saying I won't work, but know I will this morning, before I head off for the day.

In the meantime, I hope everyone and all stays distant and safe. I ran to the local convenient store to get ice this afternoon and there wasn't a single person with a mask on, besides me and the workers. That's the first of this kind I've seen since March....but it was pouring rain, and by the looks of it (and the purchases of cigarettes, beer, and spliffs)....that crowd wasn't conscious about anything other than having a selfishly grande ol' time....all power to them...in their own spaces, and away from others.

I'm sort of short-circuiting knowing I don't have a single ZOOM obligation today.