post-camping trip thoughts:

1. they were as good as 14-year-olds can be when they are away from home for a whole weekend. there was the usual tent dismantling and tp-ing, shoes full of dirt, inappropriate sex jokes, and i did get a fat rock pitched at me (ask to see my bruise), but for the most part, they were pretty damn good.

2. some kids are every inch the idiots they seem to be. (ie: one kid mooning everyone all weekend long.)

3. some kids are not nearly the jerks they appear to be in school. it's amazing what you see in them when they're not with their other jerk friends.

4. some kids are not nearly the innocent do-gooders you think they are. when you're not looking, the quietest one may light the mooner's butt on fire.

5. some kids are every inch the gem they appear to be.

6. some parents are truly flaky. their actions and behaviors help me to understand exactly why their kids are the way they are.

7. some parents are wonderful.

8. some friends really go above and beyond the call of duty. mad love to ames, for giving up her weekend for my babies.

9. having kids do a four-mile hike doesn't mean they're so tired that they can't cause trouble.

10. you can hear a lot of interesting things when kids are playing "i've never" and you are pretending to be asleep.

in retrospect, the camping was actually fun. it was SO PRETTY in marin, and the fact that our not-flaky parent took care of EVERYTHING meant that i didn't have to do a whole lot the entire weekend. the site (china camp state park) was beautiful, with really nice facilities, and you could see all the way out to the golden gate and richmond bridges. it WAS tiring, because the babies are like puppies when they're running wild in the woods, but they were sweet. they kept checking in with me every couple of hours ...

"see! this isn't so bad, miss chiu!"
"how's your pulse miss chiu?"
"aren't i being SO GOOD miss chiu?"
"do you regret doing this miss chiu?"
"can we go again miss chiu?"

... and i think the most valuable thing this weekend was that the kids really had a breakfast club moment. sometimes i see the chasm in my house between the honors and college prep students to be so great ... but for the first time, a few of them actually got to see that the other group was not a bunch of raving lunatics or aliens ... that they actually can get along and have conversations together and play together. they had a chance to bond with new people. for a moment, all the yuckiness of having to "front" in high school fell away, and they could just be kids.

in addition to that, i think amy and i both felt like we had a chance to teach kids a few life lessons that have absolutely nothing to do with history. well-balanced girls are hard to come by, and having a chance to talk to them about choices that they make and opportunities to expand their horizons was really neat. we had a chance to pitch cal to them as their future school of choice. as well, gentlemen are made, not born, and trying to teach my extremely immature boys how to extend chivalry to their female counterparts was no mean feat. one of them had been beaten up by his older sisters enough to respond with alacrity. one of them scowled. one of them whined at first, but did graciously carry a girl's backpack for 3 miles. they are works in progress.

all in all, i live to tell the tale. seeing the kids outside of school was a really good thing for me. i don't know if i'll be more patient with them or what ... but it was eye-opening all the same.

and the door is open for "next time."