Minus Six

One of the nice things about traveling for work---and there are very few niceties---is the ability to mesh the online and offline worlds. So many of the people I am in regular communications with live far away from Washington. Going out of state means grabbing opportunities to put faces with avatars.

So, tonight will be another round of decreasing six degrees of separation through the magic of shrinking geotemporal relationships. In other words, I'm meeting some edubloggers (and kin) at a bar.

• Jenny Orr, who I've gotten to see a few times (most recently at ASCD in March), is always a delight.
• Laura Varlas, who manages the ASCD Inservice blog and Twitter feed will be joining us. We met Laura in March and are looking forward to having her join us again.
• I am particularly enthused about meeting Karen Traphagen. As one of the key players in organizing ScienceOnline and making it a success, I have been hoping to get to know her for some time. She is bringing her daughter (techielit), an English teacher from the Philadelphia area. I am most anxious for Karen and Laura to chat. The ASCD/ScienceOnline connection really needs to happen---not that I would expect anything in particular to emerge from that, but there is such potential for building some understanding of how online environments develop and flourish.
• Also new to me will be Tim, from Assorted Stuff. He's another long-time edublogger and has been on my blogroll for years. Finally, we get to sit down together and have a beverage.
• Doyle, a/k/a The Science Teacher, looks to be a game time decision. We are all very much looking forward to meeting him (and his lovely wife). Keep your fingers crossed that he will be able to set aside his work for a few hours and play with us.

Are you in the Philly area and need some dinner dates for the evening? Let me know. We'll be happy to put "+1" at the table and "-6" for degrees of separation. It's the very best sort of math

Update: Squee! Just heard that Organized Chaos is coming to dinner.

Update #2: Thank you Tim and Ann, Organized Chaos, Karen, Hannah, Jenny, Laura, and Angela for a wonderful dinner last night at the Good Dog Bar. Definitely the highlight of my trip. You've done my teacher heart a lot of good. (Doyle, you were greatly missed. You owe me a trip out to Seattle.)