February 9th, 2012

    I woke up to the smell of my favorite muffins fresh out of the oven.  Lemon poppyseed! Veronica remembered.  In the afternoon I watch Latisha retrieve rebounds like nobodies business in the middle school basketball game.  After the game we pick up some pizza and the other girls and head back to my house.
    The Box of half eaten pizza is on the table.  Alexis is lounging on the couch.  Tianna is sitting cross legged on the floor with her legs tucked under the coffee table in front of her.  Latisha is sprawled out on the floor in front of the fire.  Her beads are in a rainbow around her.  All are bent over their work; their eyes squinting to make sure they can get the beads stacked onto the earring posts.  "Can you show me again how to bend the wire to make a loop for the earrings?" Latisha asks.  "Sure," I say.  She sits up next to me and we both do the steps together.  "Can you pass me that wire cutter?" asks Tianna.  The three stay very calm as we make earrings together.  The conversation bounces back and forth between silly and serious as we talk about middle school life.  Time slips away and soon we are cleaning up the beads and pliers.  It is time to take everyone home.  We get in the car and they ask for the millionth time if we can listen to 92.9 "The Bull".  They all love country music.  I remind them that my radio is still broken.  So, instead, we listen to songs from Bible study, and they sing along.
    As I crawl into bed that night I think I would not have wanted to celebrate my third anniversary of my arrival on the Rez any other way.