Three days home and feeling a bit more human.  The end of our summer travels were crazy mainly because I fell prey to a nasty flu bug the Tuesday of our Camp Awesum week and spent the rest of the week sleeping as much as I could.  We did not get to do some of my favorite things, especially walking the labyrinth, being out on the water in some sort of boat, and doing the night hike. Julia, however, did get to indulge in most of her favorite activities and generally had a good time.

Julia really enjoyed the dance—I can’t help taking pictures of her interacting with music, no matter they are not clear.  It is wonderful to see her enjoying herself. There are many social activities coming up as high school begins. I am not quite sure how, but I hope that she can attend and enjoy the freshman welcome party and homecoming.

She also decided to sing for the variety show.  Some of our wonderful volunteers back her up as she sang “Party in the USA.” Julia almost has some stage presence.  An interesting note, Julia recognized that she did not catch all the lyrics correctly.  She was more critical of what she did, even though she still showed absolutely no nervousness to perform.

We had more than our share of rain at camp and I was very grateful for snug cabins and rain gear.  Julia managed to get into the water up to her knees but it was too cool for her to get any wetter.  Evening camp fires were occasionally in the lodge but we had a grand fire the closing night and all lit candles to put into a wooden contraption that was floated out into the lake.

This was not the adventure that I planned for but it was still a good, sweet time.

Home now, I am finally not longing for a midday nap, although I could probably still take one. I was not the only person to come down with the bug and it was astonishing how quickly it could lay someone low.  Now, it is amazing how long it is taking me to really recover.  The attack was primarily upper respiratory with the usual feverishness, chills and stuffed head. I am still coughing, with or without cough meds and drops, I hack away in such a way to attract attention.  Another lingering aspect is that very little tastes good to me.  When I was at camp, food tasted very salty.  I mean, everything except desserts, was much too salty for me to eat.  I don’t use much salt at home and so I imagined that I was just over sensitive, but on our way home, we broke for lunch and ate at a Great Danes-a restaurant chain that we’ve frequented from time to time in Madison. I choked down half of my chicken sandwich, again not able to endure the saltiness.  I finally asked Julia about what we were eating and she didn’t think it was salty at all. I don’t know why I didn’t ask up at camp but I wonder if anyone else found food salty.  I’m guessing not.  At home, it was and still is the same.  Very strange.  I’ve never had a flu that changed my tastebuds but for now, I am eating fruit, yogurt and dry toast.  Thank goodness, peaches are not salty at all!