On the eve of 27

I feel more loved than I would have ever imagined, from the woods in the middle of nowhere. After having an eight-year-old throwing up with me most of last night, I did not want to wake up this morning and face the fact that I would be in the woods for my birthday the next day.

Something about today changed all of that and now I'm okay about tomorrow. It was the mysterious package at my dinner table from "my friends in SF" who made me feel so loved, complete with coconut water, seaweed, peanut butter eggs, dried bananas, and gummies. Barclay, I have a feeling that you had something to do with it! I started looking through the photographs in the package, wondering why there were photos that I didn't recognize the people in them in there. With a bunch of eight-year-olds swarming me, I came to realize that the photos might not be from people I know, but that they each had a note on the back from some of my life's most important people that brought me to tears. Even people from Africa and Pennsylvania. People who know me so well that they know what to do to make me feel less lonely this week, when I was scared of feeling abandoned and unnoticed.

Try explaining all of this to eight-year-olds as your eyes well up with tears- you tell them that you haven't spent your birthday without your friends in SF and then they get offended that they aren't your friends and aren't important to you. Which of course, you say, they are, but they aren't your same age. They will then say that teachers are your age, but you'll say it's different with these friends, not wanting to go into all of the details.

Thank you to those of you who put this together and shared your kind thoughts and words to a Ms. Frizzle in the gold country of the Sierra Nevadas on this eve before she turns 27. I'm eternally grateful...