July 2021

 As always July was a very busy month. It started with me picking up CJ from Camp Sweet Escape which was the diabetes camp. CJ was not able to have her phone the whole time she was there so I had no idea if how she was doing.  I was so excited to get her and find out how her week went. She had so much fun and talking the whole way home telling me all about it and the new friends that she had made.  When I picked her up one of the workers told me how much she loved CJ and that when they went skating CJ skated the whole time that they were there.  CJ said that she was the oldest and everyone looked up to her as a big sister. 

CJ came home just for the weekend.  We took her on a motorcycle ride and to went up to the school like always to watch the Williamston fireworks show.  This year's fireworks started late and were very long.

Tuesday morning we got up every early and I took CJ to the airport so that she could fly to Newark and off to the Poconos to CLTC camp. This was the first time that CJ would fly alone and had to change planes on her own.  I was so nervous all day.  I went and spent the day with my friend Beth just to keep my mind off things.  Beth took me to Bintime to shop so that I would not be worrying so much.  It helped some but I still worried all day. 

CJ had no problems changing planes in Washington.  She made it to Newark and that is where she had some troubles.  We were not sure where the BBYO councilors where going to be at and then CJ's blood sugar dropped and she was so nervous.  She did not what to stop and take care of it until she got to the baggage claim or found the counselors. Her sugar was dropping to dangers levels so I had to talk her into stopping right there and just eating a pack of gummies.  I told her over the phone that everything was going to be ok and that she did not have to get to her next place so fast.  She stopping and ate as well and finished her Starbucks coffee that she had bought.  She then was able to find the counselors, her bag, and sit and get some real lunch.  She got lunch and they told her that it did not take my prepaid cards that I give CJ.  The restaurant really did take the card, so they double charged her and we did not know this until she got home and I was able to check the card. We decided that I would not send her with prepaid cards again.  She found out that the girl sitting just one person from her on the plane was also going to camp with her.  I told CJ this is why I talk to everyone you never know.  The two girls never talked to each other on the plane only once they got to the airport in Newark.  CJ had to sit for a long time at the airport before the bus left for camp. On the way on the bus CJ was getting annoyed with the people playing rap music and acting preppy.  I talk to her about being tired and just try her best to ignore them.  By the next day at camp she was starting to make friends and releasing that the preppy people were not so bad.  Those every time she would get tired or feel let out she would get annoyed by the other campers.  Overall, she stated that she had a really great time and learned a lot.  She was very happy that she got to go. The camp was mostly conferences so she did not get to do much camp stuff which she was ok with.  She did hurt her knee in the mosh pit and was in a talent show where everyone loved her beautiful voice. She really loved that they gave her a standing ovation and yelled her name.

While CJ was a camp I got spent a lot of days at Beth's and Jay and I went out on dates.  The first Friday that she was gone we Jay and I went to Maulden's Beachin' Friday.  They had music, dancing, and food trucks.  Jay and I ate at the food trucks and said that if we did this again we would just bring out dinner because the food truck was over priced and took forever to get our food. We had a really nice time listening to the band and goofing around.

Saturday we went down to Georgia to see Garrett and give him his birthday presents.  We took him out to Nuway for hot dogs because that is what he wanted for his birthday.  We were not there very long because Garrett had to get ready for his birthday party with his friends.  So we drove home with a pit stop at Dairy Queen.

The next Friday we drove to Virginia, so that I would not have as long of a drive to pick up CJ.  We stopped at IKEA on the way up and went shopping.  When got to Virginia we relaxed and then went to dinner at a new restaurant in Altavista and then to the Tasty Freeze for ice cream.  We then went down to the river to walk around before going back to the hotel to sleep.  

 In the morning, I got up and had breakfast with Jay and then headed to Quakertown, Pennsylvania to Ms. Margy's house for the night before I picked CJ up.   It was an easy trip up to Ms. Margy's house.  I had no problems and got there at a good time.  Ms. Margy was so happy to see me and we had such a nice evening.  She was so funny.  She was telling me all about how she did not like her new apartment building because everyone there was so old.  She told me that she knows that she is probably the oldest in the building at 92  years old but the other residence just seemed old.  Ms. Margy just had the mind of such a young woman that is why I love her so much. In the morning because Ms. Margy got up I woke up and drove the 2 hours to get CJ from camp. It was raining the whole time but I had no problems finding the camp.  The only problem that I had was that it was early Sunday morning and no place was open to use the bathroom and get a cup of coffee.  When I picked up CJ everyone told me how much they loved her.  

We left camp and I took CJ to find Aglo, New York which is really not a town at all.  It is a fictional town from the book Papertowns by John Green which is a book that CJ loves.  The town was an hour from the camp and very hard to find since it was just a sign on the side of the road.  I drove by it 2 times and was able to to give up when out of the blue CJ said pull over I see it.  So we pulled over in the middle of this highway and found the sign.  We got out and walked through a ditch that was full of rain water to take the picture of the sign.  CJ was so happy it we will laugh about trying to find this fictional town for years to come.

We got back to Ms. Margy's and she was just as happy to see CJ.  We had to do CJ's laundry and Ms. Margy needed her laundry done to so we found a laundry mat.  It was not a very nice one but it still was CJ's first experience with a laundry mat. The dryer were broke and did not dry any of our clothes.  So I just placed all the wet clothes in the back of the car in hopes they would dry (which they did not).

Ms. Margy cooked use a very large dinner.  I told her that I would take her out to dinner but she wanted to cook dinner for us.  CJ and I could not eat all the food that she put out.  She made such a large meal it was the sweetest thing.  I miss that Ms. Margy lives so far away and before she moved we did not see her much because for a year we could not see her because of COVID. That night I got one of my really bad migraines.  It had been a long time that I got one that bad.  I could not believe when I was throwing up that I did not wake everyone in the house.  By morning I was tired but doing better.  Ms. Margy made us a huge breakfast before we left to meet my Aunt Lonarae.

We had planned to meet my Aunt at Knoebel amusement park.  I had not seen my Aunt in 35 years so I was very nervous that it would not go well.  It was the most amazing visit.  First, CJ had so much fun at the amazement park.  She got to ride a roller coaster that she had studied in her engineering class. She talked about that coaster the whole time we were at Knoebel.  She did not know ahead of time that that coaster was at the park we were going to, so it was a fun surprise.  At Knoebel that had a carousel museum and a museum about Knoebel and the area.  Which we love museums, so we all had fun. Uncle Dent was so sweet and rode many of the rides with CJ. By dinner time we decided that things where going so well we would go for dinner together and stay at Aunt Lonarae's house. 

 Aunt Lonarae and Uncle Dent where amazing people.  They were so sweet and kind.  Aunt Lonarae reminded me a lot of myself.  CJ was excited to see that she looked like someone in my family.  We spent a long time talking before it was so late I could not keep my eyes open anymore.  The next day we got up and went to Penn Cave. We went on a wonderful boat ride through the cave and on a wild adventure bus ride.

Aunt Lonarae and Uncle Dent are huge Penn State fans and took use to see the Penn State stadium.  It was another really great day and I got to see where some of my mannerisms come from and a lot about my family.  Everything that I thought I know was not true. We stayed around night at Aunt Lonarae's house, had dinner, and stayed up late again talking.  She gave me a picture of my great grandma and grandpa, some of my great grandma's recipes that I remember when I was a kid, and shared many stories of her life.  I can not wait to meet again.  I could not believe how healing this visit was.  

 We left a little later then we had planned but it was ok we had such a great time.  We when drove to hour to Hersey, Pennsylvania. We went to Hersey World.  Where we went on a ride that showed want the factory did . We wanted to go on the history bus ride but it was full, so we did the test testing.  Most of the time we spent in the story finding chocolate, having lunch, and goofing around.  CJ was excited to see so many Jewish in one spot because there was a Jewish summer camp that had come to the factory. 

 We then drove to Baltimore for the night.  I had Jay book us and extra night in Baltimore because we did not get there until late and would not be able to see any of the sites until morning.  We decided not to do Washington DC and do that another time. When we got to Baltimore our hotel was nice and we decided to walk and try and find dinner by the bay.  It was not that far to the bay and we got Shake Shack for dinner because we had not had that since we were in New York.  Though it was a mistake our food was not very good.  We should have just done Chick-Fil-A which was next door.

The next morning we got up and CJ song part of "Good Morning Baltimore."  We then decided that we would walk to some of the sites that we wanted to see. CJ's knee was still not feeling the best but she was up for the challenge.   Our first site was Edgar Allen Poe's grave site. I was so excited about this because I had been teaching "The House of Usher" for years and every year the kids would ask me if Poe was still alive.  Even though I will not be teaching Poe with my new job I was still excited about seeing his grave. On the way to the graveyard we passed by the Hippodrome Theater which was a famous theater that Aunt Lonarae was telling us about.  CJ found out that the Hippodrome was playing "Hair Spray" in July of next year.  She really wanted to go because nothing would be better then seeing "Hair Spray" in Baltimore.  

After we left the graveyard,  it was one mile to walk to Poe's house.  We walked to the house but did not know that the house was in the middle of a very rough neighborhood. CJ kept going even though she was in pain from her knee, but there was no where to stop and sit.  We got to the house but where not able to go in because they were limiting the number of visitors in the house and where books for the day.  So we just took pictures outside of the house and headed to the Baltimore museum.  Which again was through even a worse neighborhood.  We talked through areas that had abandon building that were graffitied and boarded up.  I felt bad about walking CJ through such rough neighborhoods where she could not rest but she was a good sport and we stayed safe.

The museum was really neat.  I did not know that Baltimore was known for all the theaters and how important theater and movies where to Baltimore.  I also learned that Elizabeth Bonapart who married Napoleon's brother was from Baltimore.  She was an amazing women for being divorced during a time that was not excepted.

We then went over the the Mt. Vernon Market to have lunch.  It was this really neat place that had all kinds of different restaurants.  CJ went to this restaurant that specialized in mac and cheese.  She got this really neat and different mac and cheese.  We then walked to the Mt. Vernon monument, because of CJ's knee and all the walking we had already done we did not walk the stairs to the top of the monument.  I also thought because of CJ's fear of heights she would not enjoy being at the top of the monument. 

As we left because of all the walking CJ's knee was really hurting.  We learned that they had a bus that was free.  As we walked to the bus we saw the Peabody library.  We could not go in because of COVID restrictions.  The bus trip was was very confusing.  We did not know how to get the bus to stop at our stops and one lady on the bus was very upset.  She was causing a site which scared CJ, so we decided to get off the bus and start walking again.

After we got off the bus, we looked at the map to try and figure of how to get to the Phoenix Shot Tower.  As we were looking at the map and trying to decided which route to take the police officer over heard us and told us to take the route that CJ was looking at not the one I was looking at.  The one CJ was looking at avoided the strip clubs.  I just had to giggle at that.  We talked to the Shot Tower.  It again was not in a good neighborhood and some guy came up to us looking for a lighter.  I am sure so that he could give the girl that was so high behind him some more crack. At least, we are having some adventures in these neighborhoods and CJ is seeing how bad drugs are.

After we went to the Shot tower we went back to the pier to have dinner.  We decided to go to Phillips Seafood restaurant.  When we sat down I noticed that the family next to us had said something about CJ wearing her Dexcom.  When they left one of the ladies came up to CJ and told her that she was so beautiful.  This changed CJ, she gained a bunch of confidence in herself and how beautiful she is.  To have strangers come up to you and tell you how beautiful you are it the best thing in the world.  I tell her how beautiful she is all the time but that means nothing come paired to a stranger.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and crashed.  In the morning ,we decided to stop at Mt. Vernon on the way home.  As we where driving CJ and I started to notices that CJ was braking out in hives.  She was really itchy, the hives started to grow bigger, and spread all over her body. I gave her some Benadryl and hydrocortisone to help with the itching and hives.  By the time we got to Mt. Vernon, she was feeling dizzy and the hives where all over.  We decided not to go to Mt. Vernon but go to the hospital.  They gave CJ and IV, but could not do much because Type 1 diabetics could not have steroids'.  They monitored her for several hours and then sent us home.  It was 3:00 and CJ and I just wanted to get home by that time.  We know that we would not get home until 12:00 a.m. but we thought that if we shared the driving we could do it.  

We made it home and the next day did laundry and rested.  Sunday I took CJ to get her 16 year old pictures done.  They turned out nice like always.

The rest of the week we worked on all the things to get ready of CJ's birthday party.  On Thursday was CJ's birthday.  She wanted to go to IHOP and swimming for her birthday.  Her friend Channessy took her to the YMCA to go swimming after breakfast.  They had a fun day swimming. CJ wanted to go to Moon Dog for a fancy frozen coffee.  So we went and she also picked up an application because they were hiring.  She really wanted to work at Moon Dog. For dinner CJ wanted chicken wings because it was national chicken wing day. We had a lovely dinner and then she opened her presents.  She really wanted an old fashion record player and records.

On Saturday we had her birthday party.  She wanted to have a party at the skating rink.  Everything went well for her party.  It was nice to see some of her friends parents that I had not see in a while.  I think that I had just as much fun as CJ.  At the end of the night she even picked up an application for the Skating Rink because they were hiring to.