Dying/broken/forgiven.... now I begin

Born: 17-06-56....gemini.... monkey
re-born: 3-09-80
born again\found: 14-04-08
other notable dates: 10-03-68; 03-09-87; 23-03-96;
1-05-98; 31-01-02; 5-04-04

Interests: movement, stressed/transgressive embodiment, lived experience (body\space\time\relation)
expression ( word, dance, text, image, story, music, poetics)
learning, yielding......

Hopes for the blog:
offer up the wild intersectedness of lived experience and engage others in creative, expressive, perhaps irreverant, hopefully playful, and respectful encounters....
enact kindness
create moments of pause for disclosure, discovery, stillness

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Autism Camp 2010: a.k.a. I don't usually learn much on a " good" day

that being said, the past two days have been decent, considering.
Victoria, my oldest camper and by far my most irreverent, had a huge seizure in the pool locker room, giving her head and cheek bone quite the crack against the wall on her way to the floor. she was shocky for awhile after and then consented to being driven back to the home site in a car instead of on the bus... it likely helped that she was driven by two " hunks" ( last week, before camp, she had spoken with me via email and reminded me that i had to have " hunks" ( ie, handsome, young men) at camp for her amusement). all the same, she was in rough shape and i called her mom and dad to be ready for her once we got her back there. later on in the evening, i called and spoke to her dad. i heard victoria yelling in the background: is that her?
her dad: yes, it is
victoria: give me the phone. hi,you. tell me a joke
i comply.
then i ask if she has a bruise on her face
victoria: yes
me: well, we will be painting faces tomorrow for our out-trip, so no-one will notice
victoria: i will be a rat... maybe a princess rat; but a rat for sure. my dad's a rooster and my mom's a pig.
beat.... a pause just long enough for me to catch the code ( chinese astrology, in case you are still wondering...)
me: i'm a monkey
victoria: i shoulda known that!
me: you're some tough ( that's my newfoundland heritage coming out, there)
victoria: t'anks ( that's her making fun of my newfoundland heritage)

what else... our pristine non-pooping record was broken today with a spectacular spray of shit that earned us a shrill whistle blast and an everybody out.... only ten minutes left, so the damage was not as great as it could have been. moral: promises are empty in the presence of warm bubbly water, and so are bowels.

other gems borne of a few not so good days.....
* planning works
* sleepy kids are cranky when mom has to wake them up to get them to camp (hey, it's our job to wear them out, and we pride ourselves in doing just that)
*balloon badminton is fun ( and possible)
* no matter how badly you toss ( drop) a bowling ball, it manages to hit something and knock it down
*when the kid you're working with makes funny noises and/or does strange things, other people look at you

perhaps the " not so good days" are gems in themselves and perhaps this camp is like a river... we never dip our hands into the same water twice

2 comments:

  1. Love the revelation of the code there - don't think I would have caught on to that.

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  2. Pisces-- yes, indeed; she keeps me on my toes, does Victoria. Glad you enjoyed.

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