Barbara Herrera

Yes

Nothing! As an adult, I've wanted to travel a lot more than I have, always having the dream of photographing midwives around the world, but my health seems to be diminishing that dream as the days go on.

I would like to have another book (or 5!) published. I would LOVE to have my photographs published more often.

I want grandkids!

I've been with my partner Sarah since 1986, meeting when my youngest was 2 days old and she was 7 months pregnant. All our kids grew up together and remain friends as adults.

Sarah and I have gotten married every time the law allows us to and we have done at least 24 tv and radio interviews about Gay Marriage in California.

I've had many articles published and a book on lesbian erotica published many years ago. A writer since elementary school, I didn't realize I wrote so well I could be published and LOVE having my work read all over the world.

I've been on the Internet since 1995 and am very active in the on-line world, including have a (midwifery-related) popular blog and being terribly addicted to Facebook (where I see several high school pals!).

I'm rabidly opinionated, mostly about midwifery and women's health issues and have to temper my expressions so I can communicate without animosity. I just feel so strongly about women's health rights and the sad state of affairs of women's health in this world; I want to do more.

Surprises? I've been in jail (ask me about it), divorced, lived in Germany, Washington, DC and now California, plan to live in Kaua'i by the time I am 50, have 3 hysterical dogs, didn't walk for 3 years at one point, nearly died after the San Diego fires in 2003, was bald for 3 years because of medications to treat my (after-fire) illness, learned Spanish fluently as an adult, have remained life-long friends with Teresa Walls and would NEVER NEVER NEVER go back to being a teen-ager again, but if there was some sort of anachronistic shift, I would be a TOTALLY different person than I was back then. I am much kinder, more compassionate and couldn't care less how much people make fun of me for being fat. I cared way too much what people thought of me when I was young. NOT ANYMORE!

I loved band, loved my friends Alice Wiley (who died in 1980), Anne Wintsch(-Reis... who I am still dear friends with), Gerry Apodaca (who I haven't seen in over a decade) and the rest of the band geeks (we weren't called that then! I swear!) who laughed and played - and practiced - hard. I can still smell the scent of sweat while wearing the leather marching band overlay, still feel the fear of inspections, that my shoes might not be white enough... Guy Goedde (bless his soul) scrutinizing every white piece of clothing and every gold and silver parts of our instruments. I remember the exhilarating fear of half-time shows, can still hear the screaming applause of admiration from my peers and their family members.

I remember AVC class (Americanism versus Communism)... can you BELIEVE we had a class like that?

I remember smoking in the designated outdoor hallway. Whose stupid idea was it to allow kids to smoke in school?!?

I remember skipping school to hang out in friends' houses whose parents worked. (And I was a great student!)

I remember seeing so many friends at the Eagles concert in the Tangerine Bowl in 1976.

I remember the band guys singing a capella in my bathroom (my parents were never home).

I remember going to Pizza Hut after games.

I remember away games and the bus rides where we clandestinely touched each other under blankets. How tender was our sexuality back then!

I remember when I had to ask what a computer was and was told we had a computer at our school; it filled an entire room!

I remember when friends got their first microwave (we didn't get one for years) and how "dangerous" we all thought it was.

I remember Pong and how we never, in a million years, could have imagined it would transform into Wii (and more!).

I remember the smell of the mimeographed paper (more from elementary and junior high).

I remember how terrified I was in Driver's Ed and so afraid I would kill someone on the road. No one yet! (Thank goodness!)

I remember what a scandal it was when someone got pregnant. What ever happened to those girls?

I remember when David Scroggins was killed and how the school mourned and pulled together to love each other.

I remember getting out of class to attend Pep Rallies and how Mr. Spoon was always filled with school spirit.

I remember when Oak Ridge didn't need security guards or bars on the windows.

I remember when the land where Florida Mall now sits had the sign that changed every year: "Florida Mall: coming in 1972/1973/1974/etc.

I remember when we had to type our papers ON TYPEWRITERS! with eraser paper! (Can you even imagine how much time we save now with computers?!?)

I remember hating math. Nothing's changed there.

I remember Mr. Fedell with delightful tenderness. He was BY FAR my favorite/best teacher at Oak Ridge. His teaching style was exactly what I needed in order to learn.

I remember how painful being a teenager was, how fat I was (which is hardly even chunky compared to kids today!), how little I fit in - yet have learned that almost everyone felt that way! I wish we had been able to tell each other that back then... things might have been easier for all of us.

I never imagined this life that I have today... could never have imagined it! While I love my high school memories, I am very, very happy to be this far away from them.

I had dinner with Bonnie Raitt after one of her concerts.

My family knew Muhammed Ali when I was a kid (my mom babysat for his trainer Angelo Dundee when she was growing up).