how old?

We were on the first day of our journey to D.C....
On the tour bus traveling through the mountains...
I was gazing out the window, listening to my iPod, when I noticed C and one of the moms looking at me expectantly...
I pressed pause just in time to hear my daughter explain,
"No, that's not my sister, that's my mom."
Oh.
The very next day, we're in DC...we've just visited the White House (really truly we got the background checks and the representative approval and apparently I'm not a criminal because my background check came through okay because I visited the White House!) and the FDR Memorial and Arlington and we're eating lunch across the street from the National Archives and I'm just dying to go over there and look at the Constitution and the Declaration real quick...
So I go over to the tour guide and ask her if we have time to go over there really quick and she says no...and she is kind of mean and really short with me!
And I said okay...I'm not a southern woman for nothing...I just turned on the charm and explained why I thought we'd have time...
And she said again, no, and then she said, "You'll need to ask your mom if you have time later."
Oh.
It must be my hair.  I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.
I called C 'Sis' the rest of the trip.  She didn't think it was funny, AT ALL. 

Midnight in Chicago

I brought my laptop along just in case I had time.  My beautiful girl crashed asleep as soon as we got back to the hotel tonight.
Going on a four-day field trip with a bunch of middle school kids (average age: 13) has been all kinds of fun so far. 
That was a joke.
I'm separate from the other parents, and I'm not quite sure why.  I have my theories.  A lot of it is on purpose, on my part.  I tend to hold people at arm's length.  I've always been a loner, but lately it's been rather extreme. 
Also, this is a small, private, Christian school that my daughter goes to.  The other moms are, for the most part, older than me and married, and they have short coiffed hair.  I feel massively inferior and different on this trip.  I was a mother at 19, I've never been married (though I have been with my boyfriend for eight years now, which is a very long time and I've heard the "when are you getting married" thing about a million times now), I haven't had short hair since eighth grade, and I don't usually wear pastels. 
Being separate has never bothered me before.  But now, I see my daughter going through the same thing with the other girls that did come on this trip.  I'm watching her, and she's separate from them.  And it really bothers her.
And it makes me feel terrible, because it has to be my fault. 
Chicago is such a great city and I hate to be feeling like this while we're here.  I don't know how to fix it, or if it can be fixed.  It's times like this, when watching her heart be broken is breaking my heart, that really makes me feel the loneliness of being a single parent.  I wish I didn't have to worry over this alone.
Hopefully Friday will be a better day.  We'll be visiting some of our favorite places, and I'll try harder to keep her company so maybe she'll forget that she was on the outside.  It's always about good memories.  What else will you have when it's all over?  This will be my mission for her for the rest of this trip.
I'll try my hardest.  Good memories.