Only One More Day

Shael goes back to school and even though I still think it's stupid, I'm always ready for her to be gone 10 hours a day. No, school doesn't last 10 hours, but she does leave for school by 6:00 every morning. Mike takes her to my parents house on his way to work where she catches the bus to school at 7:52. On Mondays and Tuesdays she gets off the bus at my parents house and Mike stops and picks her up on his way home. Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays she gets off the bus at the beauty shop and Mike still picks her up on his way home from work. Mike gets tired of it sometimes because he has to be a responsible parent and pick her up every day when some days he'd rather go do his own thing after work. Some days he calls me and asks me to pick her up and I'm okay with that, just not every day because I have to go all the way to Wyandotte after work to get her when he drives right through Wyandotte on his way home. And some days he picks her up and drops her off at the day care with me. Now summer break is almost over and we'll be getting back into this groove. Doesn't seem like it's been very long that we got out of this groove.

I had my mouth set on a grape sno cone after work today. When I clocked out, Shael and I drove on over to the stomp grounds to get us one and lo and behold, the sno cone stand was closed. They were closed all day yesterday, too. I guess they only open up at night. They could make a killing if they opened up during they day when it was super hot. Seems kind of crazy to me. The person running it must work or something. Instead of eating purple-iceous sno cone goodness, Shael and I walked over to the game of Indian Football and watched the excitement for a few minutes until they were made to take a water break. Let me give you a brief rundown of the brief set of rules for this game. This game has been played during the days of Green Corn since the very beginning of Green Corn, I'm sure. It's a little home made pig skin ball about the size of saucer that they play with. The boys are only allowed to kick it like a soccer ball, they can catch the ball with their hands but have to immediately drop it on the ground and kick it. They try to kick the ball to their goal for a point. This girl told me today that the boys were told that if they played rough that they would be made to wear an apron and play for the girl's side. Now on to the girls, the girls are pretty much free for all. They can kick the ball, catch the ball, run with the ball, throw the ball, pass the ball across the entire field if they want. They can be rough, they can kick, scream, bite, scratch, tackle. And boy, do they do all of those. You've never seen such rough playing than a game of Indian Football. Those girls throw themselves on those boys, tackle them to the ground at a full run. All with no pads. Some don't even wear shoes. The dust flys. The girls can do anything, except win. The only "rule" is that the boys have to win. Sounds unfair, doesn't it? But, the girls make it satisfying by beating the living crap out of those boys. I am so not kidding. It seems every year theres either a broken bone or a dislocated shoulder or something. Stitches are quite common as are strains and sprains. Most often the boys, too. The girls mainly get bruised shins from the boys kicking at that ball and broken, jagged fingernails from all the scratching and gouging. I have never played, too rough for my taste.
But my sister.
Her and Indian Football went together like peas and carrots.
Peas and carrots.