Dear Journal~

Holy cats!! I slept past noon!  Wow, I must have been tired!!  Was up a good part of last night; finally fell asleep around three thirty this morning and just woke up now! 

Rebekka is looking at me, smiling.  The first words out of her mouth: "You must have been tired, honey".  (Umm, you think??)  She said I was snoring logs; I don't know if I was or not: I was asleep.  LOL

I would have been asleep a lot sooner, but muscle pain and the high left from the festival kept me awake.  I just laid in bed and watched the pretty full moon passing overhead.  It was really giant, but not as big as the moon from the night before.  THAT one was HUGE!!  It was one of the biggest moons I can rightly remember!

Rebekka and I had a great time at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival.  It was her very first time in going; as for me, I'm an old Veteran: I've been going to this thing ever since I can remember.  See, my mom was born here in Breaux Bridge; to her, this is home, and going to the festival every year is sort of like a reunion for her. 

She has gone just about every year.  Then she started taking her husband (my daddy) when they got married; after they started adopting kids, they started taking us as well, and now we go nearly every year.  Each yaer it seems the Crawfish Festival only gets bigger ... and better.  We always have a blast whenever we go, and this year was no exception. 

Rebekka and I stuffed ourselves on tasty Cajun fare and listened to the best of Cajun and zydeco musical fare.  She and I danced as only we can (in our wheelchairs), and I kept popping wheelies, which delighted the crowd.  I love doing that; dancing is one of the few pleasures I stil have left and I intend on enjoying every moment as I am able to.

We saw a lot of my family there.  Not all my brothers or sisters could be there, but a lot of 'em were.  I saw my sister Ronee', who lives here in Louisiana, where she is attending college and she looked great.  She performed with her band, "Cajun HEAT!" on Saturday and she did a great job (always does).  I got a twinge of jealousy because I am no longer able to perform or sing on stage; I really do miss that.  I miss the thrill of the people clapping or cheering for ME, and I miss being under the spotlights.

Happily, my family is doing well: no real problems going on in their lives.  Life is good for a lot of my family members.  I pray and hope that this continues.  I hate it whenever any of my family members are facing trials or are sick and/or in the hospital.  I have enough on my own plate to worry about; I don't need the added stress of worrying about members of my family, too!

We will probably leave for home tomorrow or Wednesday, the way things look now.  We plan to take it easy today (we're already packed, so no worries there; our caretaker helped us) and just enjoy one another.  It was good not to worry about schoolwork, health related issues, or life in general: we were able to cut up and act stupid without people telling us to grow up and "act your age, not your shoe size!"

The only real issue I am having at the moment: my stupid muscle pain (pain is a real issue I deal with; it's part of having my disease, Duchenne's muscular dystrophy), as well as being dreadfully sunburnt.  I look like a boiled crawfish: it's a woneder the Cajun cooks here didn't pick ME up and throw ME into a pot of gumbo and boil ME for the festival guests to chow on!  LOL  Gad, I am so red I am practically GLOWING!!

Good thing I'm not a horse: they would have to take me out to pasture and SHOOT me!

The weather here couldn't have been more perfect:  sunny and warm, with temps in the upper eighties to lower nineties with high humidity levels.  There were rain showers north and west of here, but by the time the sun went down, they fizzled out, with nothing more than refreshing breezes.  It felt so good on my sunburnt skin!

There was a chance of scattered rain and thunder showers, but thank God they never materialized.  Thank God for answered prayers!

Well, I'm gonna see if Rebekka, Carolyn, and myself can scare up something to eat and try to get motivated into doing something fun: one last fling before we head back on north to Tennessee (home).  I will write in here agian soon; until then, this is Johnathon Sandusky saying so long; may God bless you always!

~Johnathon.