Things are heating up

    Everybody seems to be talking about the heat wave, Rupert Murdoch and his  Crouching Tiger wife Wendy. I remember as a kid, the news of the day played no role in my life. I would wake, eat breakfast and make my way out the door. Summers on the reservation, we're really not that different from off the reservation. We had a community pool, a Boys and Girls club, and a beach. When the local pool began charging an entrance fee, we made our way to the local beach. A nice beach five minutes down the road from our place had a large slide into the river, a kid pool and a long dock.
     Around noon, my mom would show up with a bag of putter butter and jam sandwiches that would be gone in minutes. The beach would be get crowded by early afternoon, with many Italian and Greek families from the city. We would watch in utter fascination as they would set up camp with tablecloths, coolers of food and bottles of wine. As the day warmed up so did the loudness of the crowd. 
     What did I know about other people? Rarely did I go off the reservation except for school excursions, my friends and I watched in awe as the wine flowed, hands and fingers flying in all directions and their voices growing louder. I sat waiting for the dad to throw the first punch, something the never happened. 
       Now that I am married to a Greek guy I discovered it's just the milieu. My in-laws always grow loud and argue about anything all the time.  The beach action was friendly banter but for a kid like me who grew up in a home where banter of that sort usually ended in violence, sitting on the picnic table I anticipated the first punch.  Secretly, wishing the wife would hit the guy with the long baguette she was cutting.  
     Why am I thinking of this? All this fighting in the media sure heats up summer. Now, instead of waiting for the first punch I turn off the T.V. and walk out of the room.  I join my children out on the patio and watch in awe how they argue and fight and make-up.  Why pay an entrance fee when it's free.  Life is grand.

Hoops of Life

For the first time in a long time, I feel like life is at its best. This morning I finally began to see the fruits of my labour take off. I got a glimpse of my future and liked what I saw.

This is not to say life before now has not been great, it has and the last year was a huge learning curve for me professionally and personally. It's just nice to see some of my hard work finally set in.

Cheers to you on this lovely July 13^th.

All the right horses! All the wrong days!

Ever ask yourself if everything you're doing is wrong? Well, that's how I feel today. On the job front, I am feeling the effects of not being up to par with the young job market. Last week, I interviewed for a position I was over qualified for. I was willing to start at the low end of the pay scale just to get back into the work thing. Funny, the guy never called me back. Then, I realized a dear friend or so I thought blew me off last week, upfront. He insisted we get together this week not last but posted on FB how he is stuck at O'Hare on his way home. WTF!

It's clear I managed to piss off not only family but now friends. It's days like these you ask what did I do wrong? If the universe could be honest, I would know that I am not one to hold back what I think and feel. I am uncomfortable with some social niceties, really, I am put off with the "pussy footing around" and rather just use a more direct approach. Is my approach catching up to me?

What I do know for sure is to be honest with myself: I am smart, intelligent and resilient. I am blessed beyond belief to have family and really good friends I could count on. I mentioned to a friend yesterday, how I like to move forward and tend to like friends who do the same. Am I the same person I was last year? Comme ce comme sa. I may still hold certain things dear to me and I tend to let go of things that don't work while evolving each day. I guess this is one of the reasons social niceties weigh me down. They require patience and diplomacy, two things I lack.

So instead of feeling down, I am using my resiliency to look at ways to adapt to the changing job market and let go of friends who don't really work anymore. As for O'Hare guy, he got stuck in a layover for 10 hours, from his posted not a happy camper. Life is funny sometimes.

Powwow Time

It's Powwow weekend back in my hometown. It's a traditional Native American style dance festival celebrating everything Native through song and dance. From its inception back in 1991, the annual powwow became a gathering time on the reservation for families and friends. Like American Thanksgiving, the powwow brings people home for the weekend to enjoy two days of activities on a tiny island in the midst of the St. Lawrence River.

Now in its 20^th year, the powwow is a staple of my hometown that many come to depend on as a main summer attraction. This year is no different, as the high heat of July beckons the nape of your neck and the cheeks of your face, you can count on great Native cuisine and goods ranging from handmade lacrosse sticks, jewellery, sculptures and paintings. And if that's not enough to fill your day, there is the dancing. A spectacular display of color and skill, as dancers fill the main stage and dance to the beat of singers and drumming. Just the thumping of the drums can be heard miles away, luring even the sceptics to join the festivities.

The powwow began in 1991 in commemoration to the 1990 standoff in Kahnesatake and Kahnawake that lasted 72 days and grabbed the attention of the world as two small Native American Indian reserves protested a land grab by a greedy developer of ancient burial grounds in a small Pine tree enclave on the Lake of Two Mountains reservation.

In the initial years, I swear you could feel the pride in the air and even taste it in the food. I spent the first couple of years volunteering under the auspice of a dear friend, now a museum curator in New Mexico, in the official T-Shirt sales booth. And many more years bringing my children to the annual event, which is now a staple of their summer routine.

Today, as we wrestled with heading to the cottage or to the powwow, a little something tugged at my heart and my hometown won. Off to the powwow we go. Onen kewahe, that's Mohawk for good bye for now.