camp adventure day 4

Day 4: Spin City

Monday, June 10th, 2013

When I woke up, I had no clue that this would not be a good day
for me. To start with, the weather was awful. We managed to take
group pictures outside in between rain showers, but had to put
plastic on the wet benches. There wasn't much to do after that,
so I decided to go to the retreat center and read. The climax was
over, but the book itself seemed to be never-ending.

I was sitting at a table with my book and an unopened bottle of
Dr. Pepper. I had only read a little when Scott sat down across
the table. We were chatting through SSP's. Other people were
around, so it was a nice gathering.

That's when it happened again. I opened my Dr. Pepper and it went
"Kaboom!" Explosion number two created serious panic, because
this time my DBC was open. The keys and braille display got wet.
There was also pop inside the leather case. We had to do a quick
bit of cleaning and let everything sit and dry. Luckily, there
was no damage to the machine.

Unfortunately, the "year of the exploding Dr. Pepper" was caught
on film. Someone got a pic of the incident. Last year was the
banana boat splash. This year it was Dr. Pepper showers. It seems
like there is always trouble when Scott and I are together.

Speaking of Scott and bananas... I had him try my hand sanitizer
and guess the scent. He thought it was kiwi. Close... It was
banana, of course. But I swear I didn't do it on purpose. I
randomly grabbed a bottle, and it turned out to be Scott scented.
Who would have guessed?

I spent part of the morning in the art room. They didn't have
anything that interested me. I ended up painting so wind chimes
and my fingers. I'm really skilled with the latter part.

While the art wasn't so great, I was thrilled to see my friend
Carol Stevens. She used to be part of the team that ran camp,
including Bishop Peggy Johnson and a former camped named Aniko.
This was the 15th anniversary of DeafBlind camp. Carol and Peggy
were there to help celebrate.
All was not well with me. Every time I got up, I had a dizzy
spell. It was like someone would suddenly tilt the floor on me.
My SSP's were trying so hard to keep me upright. But the spells
came on so fast. By lunch time, I was starting to get fed up.

DeafBlind Camp of Maryland is looking for a new logo. I teased
Scott about him designing one, because he's so creative. He did
have an idea but insisted he is awful at art. Amy is an amazing
artist. I hoped to get the two together to see if they could
design the logo.

We were to meet Scott in the art room, but he wasn't there. Amy
went one way and Tiara and I went another, but we couldn't find
him. It turned out that his SSP's disappeared, and he had to walk
to the retreat center on his own. When he didn't find us, he went
to the lounge.

Eventually, we got together and the two began to create. Janice
and Lydia were also there. It was relaxing and nice to just hang
out.

I also attended two Pro-Tactile workshops, which were taught by
Andrew. This is a growing movement about how to modify
communication for OUR needs... Making communication completely
accessible to people who use tactile sign language.

It was interesting, but I was growing tired of being stuck
inside. I expected a one hour workshop that was being repeated
three times. I wasn't happy to realize we needed to attend all
three sessions. As it turned out, I only made it to the first
two.

We learned to tap the signer's hand to show that we were
interested and following what they were saying. If you didn't
understand, you wouldn't tap. I found the tapping to be annoying.
I would reverse the idea and tap to express confusion.

We also learned how to draw or show emotions on the person's
body. For example, if you were smiling, you'd draw a smile line
on the person's hand. Or a frown. For a question, draw a question
mark. There's also a way to show laughter, but I can't explain
that one.

People seemed confused about where to draw. Some people liked it
on their hand, fore-arm, back or leg. Andrew kept saying,
"Anywhere is fine."

Some girl asked the lewd question, "Anywhere???" Andrew laughed
at that.

Hey, I only intended that remark for my SSP. I didn't expect her
to tell the class. I was very embarrassed.

Before dinner, Peggy put on a presentation about how camp was
started and talked about the first few years. There was a slide
show. She read a letter from Aniko and gave Barbara Moore an
award for 15 years perfect attendance. (Barbara cried.) Peggy and
Carol were given their own awards at dinner. I'm sad to say I
never got the chance to see Peggy.

The rain had stopped again, so they decided to go ahead with the
hay ride and camp fire. I did not want to sit on wet hay for a
boring ride I've gone on too many times. My plan was to go to my
room for awhile, and then come out later for s'mores.

As Tiara guided me outside, I had yet another dizzy spell. I
finally fell, skinning my knee and bruising me leg. I was in an
awful mood. I ended up staying in my room for the rest of the
night. It's too bad because they playing Dingo.