April 5th, 2025
Yali's talking to me before I'm fully awake... “Mom... should I have berries Captain Crunch or sausage pizza for breakfast?” Uh...
When I leave my room about fifteen minutes later it looks like he's already invested in a bowl of cereal while watching behind-the-scenes Harry Potter documentaries... he's also slicked down and combed his hair... when he sees me he hustles to the medical cabinet, returning with two Q-tips which he tosses at me to clean his ears...
Sally arrives after nine-thirty for Carrie-Bri and little R to pick us up for the Cahokia Mounds Native American market temporarily relocated to the VFW in Collinsville, Illinois... Carrie-Bri is five days from her due date now as she drives us through the rain and the craters of Illinois highway as we discuss the depressing decline of East St. Louis history after the race riots... and then spend about ninety seconds on more “sister-y” topics like hand lotion and nail polish...
The market is small, but steady with customers as we visit every table with little R packed into his stroller... so many beautiful works of art made by members from different tribes... Sally and I choose several pieces between us from Cherokee potter Mel Cornshucker... then Sally drops more cash on some gorgeous jasper and agate jewelry while little R listens to a man playing a wooden flute at the next door table...
Return home after noon in that same silver drizzle shortly before Oxbear arrives with the kids from the studio and Asian grocery where Patience finds Japanese strawberry Kit Kats... “It's a bit zesty” is her assessment...
Then over the next four hours I work through lists of medical payments for tax purposes... while Patience spends about one of those hours singing the same line from some “Wicked” song over and over and over again... she doesn't even like “Wicked”...
...until Yali drop-kicks her shoe into a nearly empty bowl of miso soup sitting on the table...
By this time Puck has returned from J's where they went out early to see the Minecraft movie – “It was... kind of terrible” he laughs – and hit McDonald's for Minecraft happy meals afterwards... the film was bad enough that Puck can't see himself going a second time with Oxbear and the kids...
And Oxbear – fully distracted playing VR golf with Yali – has forgotten a dinner appointment with two friends at the Crow's Nest over in Maplewood... so he hustles back out into a cold evening that is no longer filled with rain...
...while the kids all ask for those seventy-one things they'll request in a day like → passcodes and Taco Bell and bath towels (because we're always always out of them no matter how many times I push them through the wash in a week; at least they like being clean...) and “Look at this, Mom!” “Look at this, Mom!” “Look at this, Mom!” “Look! Look! Look!” and “And you know what?” “And you know what?” “And you know what?” and “Ugh, MOM! Can you make him stop saying my name with my middle name added to it?” and “So, when we go skydiving we're jumping out of a plane not a helicopter, right?”...