Notes from The Blur
By Harrison Walter
It was exciting to view another lunar eclipse and to see this one from downtown Leadville. I had to cut it short to get back for tutoring with Christie. After tutoring, I had my online ABA therapy with Bre. While logging in for the session, I started to feel weird. After my meeting with Bre, my stomach started cramping. Then I threw up. It’s quite possible I’d caught the norovirus, which was going around. I called my dad about this. He was in Salida. He turned around to return to the college. When he got there, I was pretty much out of it.
I was up a lot and in the bathroom during the night. After the oatmeal spill and bedside table mess the next morning, my dad was just done. He packed everything up, and we headed for home. He thought this was best as I couldn’t control my actions in this state, and he didn’t want me to get into trouble.
Back home, I went for a short run the next day. It was not the easiest thing to do because I was still feeling weak. This caused me to scream and get mad. I was frustrated because I got sick right before the Wichita meet and just wanted to be better.
Later that day, I realized I would have to go to my online Interpersonal Communication class that evening. I didn’t want to do the class from home because it was out of my routine. This resulted in me getting mad and not wanting to log in for the class. My parents told me that I needed to join the class despite the location. When it was time for class, I clicked the join button on my laptop, then ran out of my bedroom and hid in my mom and dad’s room. After a few minutes, I was able to calm down and participate in the class.
The next morning we got up at 5:30 to leave for Wichita. That’s when I found out my dad was now sick. He still wanted to see me run in this track meet. He mostly slept in the front seat, and I watched Sing 2 on my phone, while my mom drove. When we stopped in Kansas to run that afternoon, I started to lose it again. I was supposed to do some stride-outs after the run, and I didn’t want to do them. At this point, my mom and dad said they were prepared to turn around if I kept this up. I was eventually able to snap out of this and ride the rest of the way to Wichita.
The plan was to meet the team at a Noodles & Company restaurant for dinner. Since we got there earlier than everyone else, I went on a walk with my mom. When we got back, we waited for the team to arrive. When they got there, I started freaking out once again. When they entered the building, I ran away from the restaurant a couple of times. I eventually sat at a table next to my teammates, but put my head down. I think part of the reason I reacted this way when the team arrived was that I was not quite ready to see them yet because I was still worried about my illness.
Even though Darren asked me to ride with the team, I was still upset when we left the restaurant. Inside the hotel, I noticed two teammates walking to their room. I called them “Barbaloots” (referring to the movie The Lorax), meaning that they were scared of me, which, of course, was not true. My parents and I eventually got settled in our room.
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