Bizarrely, I’m writing from a hotel room about 20 minutes from my house. My daughter is one of 290 contestants in the National Spelling Bee. As she’s representing the District of Columbia, we’ve come the shortest distance to compete. It’s nice, though, that we’ve been given a hotel room at the site of the event, just like all the other kids.

After Monday, which is a national holiday in the United States, I’ll be splitting my time this week between the Spelling Bee, our home, and the office. On the calendar I have meetings with funders and several meetings on Capitol Hill to discuss what we’re working on with legislative staff. I’ll post things here when I get a chance.