Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Getting Ready for Muscular Dystrophy Camp (By Johnny, aged 11 1/2) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Tuesday, July 6, 2004
Rated "G" by the Author.
Johnny is bored, now that the Fourth of July is overwith and done; but then he realizes that he has camp to look forward to.
I don't know what I am going to do with myself, now that the Fourth of July is history. I am going to be so bored, sitting around the house, with nothing to do but play my video games until my fingers fall off or my brain rots or my eyes cross (whichever comes first)! Now that the fireworks and our half birthday party is done, I really am going to have a hard time trying to amuse myself until September, when school starts!
This is Johnny. I had a good Fourth of July (but Ronee' beat me to the punch; she wrote about it, so I will say nothing much except to say that other than a late afternoon thunderstorm that brought a lot of heavy rain and wind, we had a good time, and best of all, the fireworks weren't canceled after all, even with all the rain we had from the storm!). It was spent at the Nashville Fourth of July "BLAST" Festival and Celebration, and I got to sing with my sister, Ronee', on Saturday, and I also got to participate in the watermelon-eating contest. (I lost, but I did place: I came in fourth out of sixteen contestants, so I didn't do TOO badly! I just missed out on getting a trophy and a cash prize; I was mad about that, but maybe I will get them next year if my muscular dystrophy doesn't give me any more trouble than it already has!) We saw some big-name country stars there (Sara Evans, Lee Greenwood, Marty Stuart, Alan Jackson, and others), and of course, there were the local acts, like my sister, Ronee'. We also rode rides (I rode those that weren't too wild; I got gypped! I get SOO tired of riding the merry-go-round or the ferris wheel; I would have much rather ridden the Zipper or something like the Orbiter; but noooo..mommy thought I would fly out of the ride, seeing I don't have the strength to be able to hold on tightly to the bar, so I had to settle for the gentler, baby rides. What a RIPOFF! I was SOOOO mad!! GRRR!), and we pigged out on food. I didn't have too much trouble with my epilepsy acting up, but once I did have to go to the first aid ambulance to get a snort of oxygen from when the heat got to me; but in about an hour I was fine.
July Fourth in itself was great, but then we had a storm come in at about the time that Ronee' was to perform, and so she had to cancel her set. She was not amused. She did get to sing later on with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, during the patriotic set prior to the fireworks (she sang "God Bless America", and she did a very good job!), and besides, she DID get to sing the day before and the day before that, so it wasn't like she didn't get to sing at all, you know??
The fireworks were cool: it was the biggest display ever shown in Nashville, and the thing lasted a half hour. There were fireworks galore, and after a while, I had to turn off my hearing aids because they got to squealing really badly, and it hurt my ears, and it was giving me a king-sized headache; but once I "turned off my ears" I was fine once my head stopped hurting me! It more than made up for the storm, and it more than made up for Ronee' 's disappointment at not being able to sing more than she did!
But now on to more important matters. I was afraid that I was going to be bored to tears, but mama just told me that next month is my camp. I go to camp for a week every August, and it is put on by the local chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I go every year; and I always have a fun time, but camp, as happy as it is for us kids with MD and other neuromuscular diseases, it has a bit of sadness to it because there are always kids who were there the year before, and by the time camp time comes, there are fewer kids because the kids died. That is always upsetting. I also see kids who were doing great the year before going downhill, and that is bothersome too. I love camp because we get to act like normal, healthy kids for once--we play games, go swimming, tell ghost stories, and generally annoy the hell out of one another and forget of our medical problems, even if it IS for a little while!--, and we get to forget all that is happening to us and our bodies. But on the other hand, we always get to make new friends, and we always end up having a total blast!
Now that I have my camp to look forward to, all of a sudden my summer is starting to look much brighter. I was afraid that it was going to be dullsville for here on out until September, when school starts, but now I have camp to look forward to, and I can look forward to seeing my friends who have MD again! We may not get together all that much except at muscular dystrophy functions or during doctor appointments, but camp time is probably our favorite time of year because we are together for one fun-filled week, and we can act like normal kids for once, and people don't seem to focus on our problems or the fact that we are in wheelchairs or are dying all that much. They can help us in having fun, and we always make new friends!
I will write more about MD camp when it comes closer to that time, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, I will have to get some new clothes and socks and tennies, and I will have to make sure that my wheelchair is in good working order and that we aren't low on batteries for it! That would be a disaster if I got stuck somwhere, with nobody to help me! (That happened once--I was in the woods--, and for a while, I thought that nobody was going to find me after my wheelchair conked out! It was SCARY!! But someone realized that a kid WAS missing--ME!--, and they sent a search party to find me. I was lost for about an hour and a half, and I was so frightened; I thought a bear might have gobbled me up, or that I would never see my friends--or my family, for that matter!--ever again!)
Take care, guys, and I will catch you on the flipside when MDA camp starts! Stay tuned for my camp tales!
"HOMEGROWN: The Making of the 1972-73 Providence College Friars" is a retrospective of that remarkable season as well as a history of the school's basketball program, which was responsible for drawing the local talent that propelled that team to succ
This book tells the story of the 1999 Providence College Friars baseball team, the last season that the sport was played at the institution. Baseball was set to be eliminated after that season in order for the school to comply with Title IX regulatio
This book tells the story of the 1999 Providence College Friars baseball team, the last season that the sport was played at the institution. Baseball was set to be eliminated after that season in order for the school to comply with Title IX regulatio
I don't know what I am going to do with myself, now that the Fourth of July is history. I am going to be so bored, sitting around the house, with nothing to do but play my video games until my fingers fall off or my brain rots or my eyes cross (whichever comes first)! Now that the fireworks and our half birthday party is done, I really am going to have a hard time trying to amuse myself until September, when school starts!
