26.2...: On the first part of the journey I was looking at all the life. There were plants and birds and rocks and things, there was sand and hills...

... and many, many teenagers! I remember when Hannah started school at St. Robert and how terrified she was. (pic: see sweet, little, could do no wrong, precious, precious 5 year old Hannah on her first day of kindergarten...I think she still loved me then or at least pretended to.) She wouldn't even walk from the drop off area to her class without me firmly holding her hand... tears in her eyes. WELL, those days are long gone!!! While Pat held down the fort with Claire, Hannah and I made our way to the Bay Area for a four day and three night school field trip. Our trip to the

Marin Headlands was truly amazing and a valuable educational resource which should be available to every child; the educators were phenomenal!! I stayed in a dorm with two other moms and 15 girls from Hannah's class. I'm tired. The boys' dorm was right next door; basically, we shared a wall. The program was structured with hikes, lab time, team building exercises, etc., throughout the day and then "free-time" was from 4:00pm-6:00pm; three meals a day and nothing in between. Outside food was not allowed to be brought in by the guests due to animal issues, thus creating a huge hunger issue for me. Starving! I tend to eat about six times a day and I started to feel as though I was at Fat Camp...I snuck food in. Oh yes I did....without hesitation. A fine example. sad. Around 3:30 pm I would "excuse" myself and head for the contraband...granola, nuts, crackers, Mmmmmm!! I would stuff as much as I could into my pockets and then cram handful by handful into my mouth! Fearful of being found out, I would avoid eye contact with those close and carefully discard any evidence of the life sustaining deliciousness...not an easy task. One particular afternoon, I dropped a nugget of granola on the ground and it made a noticeable "thud" as it hit...I quickly turned, whistling a little tune hoping a bird or some other critter didn't blow my cover...shoo..fly away birds. The meals they provided were great! Organic and locally grown,(except for grapes) the food was delish or maybe it seemed so good due to my emaciated state! We weighed our compost and garbage at the end of every meal, graphing our stats at the evening meetings and striving for "no-waste" meals. We were doing great until the school from Oakland arrived. Sigh. I won't go there. Needless to say, our school was introduced to kids that, perhaps, have not had the same "structure/discipline" that is required/necessary to simply respect others and their differences. I think I was more disappointed with the parents responsible for those children...children only know what has been taught...ignorance is ugly. Regardless, the Headlands was a great opportunity for me to have a glimpse into Hannah's life, her friends and what direction she is taking. Sure, no pressure. So far, so good...some fine tuning is certainly necessary but I think we have a good baseline.