Back from Panama and my next trips are:

• Cape Cod
• Rhode Island
• Bahamas
• Mexico
• Thailand
• TBD?!?

I also need to figure out where to take the kiddos for our next big trip. Some ideas:

• Tahiti
• New Zealand
• Africa
• South Korea
• Brazil
• On BB’s list – Costa Rica (sloths)
• Maldives

I loved Panama and highly recommend it! I went to see the Panama Canal thinking it was something I needed to check off while I was there and I was blown away. It’s phenomenal!

I met with SO MANY PEOPLE. It was three full days of back to back, one on one meetings.

On the first day I was invited to join a specific lunch table. The same invitation had been sent at my last travel show in Sardinia. And in Sardinia it had seemed optional; I could join or not, no big deal.

In Panama, the minute my last meeting of the morning ended, a woman appeared at my side. She said,

“I’m here to take you to lunch.”

“Ok!”

As we made our way out of the meeting hall she stayed very close, I chatted with a few unescorted people and I didn’t shake her. As we approached lunch I said,

“I need the bathroom.”

“Ok, I’ll wait for you here.”

“You are dedicated to getting me to lunch!”

“Very dedicated!”

She steered me to the specific table and not only was there a table, but there were place cards. I HAD to sit next to the person in charge of the entire travel show and our consortia.

It was a lovely opportunity and a fair amount of pressure to make conversation. The next day I was overjoyed for a low stakes lunch with some travel friends.

At the end of the second day, the woman I was sharing a meeting table with asked if I’d join the head lunch table again the next day. I shook my head,

“Oh no! Way too much pressure!”

“No. No pressure at all! We’d love to have you, ok?”

And because I had no idea how else to say no. I said,

“Ok!”

My place card was on the opposite side of the table from the people in charge and there was a fair amount of Spanish happening, so I was off the hook.

I went home with what feels like a million more places I want to send people and myself.

That first hug from my babies when I return home and they latch on to me like I’ve been gone forever is the absolute sweetest. And two seconds later it’s business as usual.

RB (my kindergartener) walked past behind me, my mom called out,

“Did you cut your hair?”

RB is a pro misbehaver. She didn’t stop. She didn’t say anything. She continued on as if she didn’t hear a word. My mom doubted what she saw and we figured maybe it was the standard wispies.

I gathered clothes to start a load of laundry. I put my hands into the pockets of RB’s fleece to make sure I wasn’t washing any treasures. I discovered a neatly stowed CHUNK OF HAIR.

A couple years ago, she cut her own hair and I THOUGHT we’d all agreed we don’t do that. BUT APPARENTLY NOT.

I went to RB and displayed the wad of hair I had found. She looked sheepish. I asked,

“Did you cut your hair?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“So-and-so dared me to.”

“So-and-so dared you to?!”

“Yeah.”

“Where did you cut it?”

“At school.”

“You know you’re not supposed to cut your own hair.”

“Yeah, but they were chanting ‘Do it! Do it!'”

“You can’t do something you know is wrong just because someone dares you to!!”

“What if they double dare me?”

At which point I realized all was lost and could already see this child doing a keg stand while everyone cheers her on.

She is the life of the party, but her OCD prevents her from complete subterfuge. She added,

“So-and-so cut her hair too.”

“What did she do with it?”

“She threw it away.”

Right. Destroying all the evidence is the most sensible thing to do, but RB couldn’t bring herself to do that and had to save it very neatly in her fleece pocket for me to find.

So maybe when she climbs out her bedroom window to sneak out to a party she’ll make enough noise straightening up that we’ll know what she’s up to.

The remainder of the chunk of hair she cut hangs very obviously on the side of her face. I keep playing with it.

As I gave it a twirl the other morning, RB looked up at me with a twinkle in her eye and said,

“I don’t regret it.”

And we know what happens to people who make terrible choices with confidence and impunity. They get elected president.

Really RB just wants to shave half of her head so she can look like her favorite LOL doll. If she’s still asking for that in August, maybe we will. Or maybe she’ll have already done it herself.

Meanwhile BB, my first baby, is celebrating the end of elementary school and is headed to middle school!

There was a parent info night and I wandered into our middle school for the first time. I was not ok. The principal at the door asked,

“Are you nervous?”

“No!”

What was I? Nostalgic? I don’t know, but feeling teary as I settled into the cafetorium.

Yesterday at the 4th grade celebration, I was very teary, much to the dismay of my child who caused the teariness in the first place.

I’m not sure how this happened but so it has.

BB’s elementary school days are numbered, RB’s next DIY haircut feels inevitable and the countdown to moving my office to the Cape is on.

Travel daydreams continue!