10-4-08

I've talked about the neighbor boy who lived beside my two friends before, remember, the kid who tried to cook a raw sausage over a citrinella candle? One day my cousin was hanging out with me & we were up in my bedroom & I heard a noise, then I saw that boy, another boy, and a girl leaving my yard so I figured they had knocked & that was the noise I had heard. Later I saw the kids come back in my yard so went to see what they wanted. The noise I heard wasn't them knocking on my door. It was my porch swing hitting my house. The kids were pushing each other on it as hard as they could.

So we made some rules. Swinging was allowed as long as they did it properly & they knocked on the door and asked first. No swinging when no one was home. It took a little enforcing, but now we have a great set up. Every once in awhile there is a knock on my door & I see little heads peeking in the window. They ask to swing & then they do. I normally go out & hang out with them & talk with them. It's fun.

The other day there was loud hard knocking & the two boys' faces peeking in the window. My roomie, our friend, & I answered the door expecting to be asked if they could swing. Instead two excited, breathless little boys informed us that they were selling kool-aid down the street for 50 cents & asked if we wanted some. Of course we did! And when we told them this you'd think they had won the lottery. "They want some!" they shouted & then ran off to tell their other selling buddies. We got some money & then skipped to the kool-aid stand where pretty much every kid on our street was working to sell some kool-aid. We were informed that refills were free & they were selling koolaid to get money to be able to go to the Dairy Queen at the end of the street. Later that day we found out they made $13 & went to DQ.

9-27-08

Last Sunday was the last day of summer (unless it was actually Monday, but I was confused on if Monday was the last day of summer or the first day of fall, but for the point of this blog, the last day of summer was Sunday).

To honor the last day of summer I decided to go on a walk at my favorite time of day. When the sun is starting to go down. You know, when everything is covered in a yellow glow. I put on my mp3 player, took my camera to take random pics & left my house. My goal was to find swings. I walked to a small park about a block a way & realized, it didn't have swings. So I started walking the opposite direction than I normally walk hoping to run into some swings.

I walked by the elementary school near my house. A group of young boys were playing football in the front yard of the school. I paused my walk to play football with them for a little bit. They accepted me well, especially since I'm a girl with cooties. I'm sure the fact that I can throw a mean spiral helped.

Then I made it to the school's playground. I found my swings. I put on the song Heavenly Day by Patty Griffin, turned it up as loud as I could & pumped my legs as hard as I could & swung as high as I could looking into the setting sun. It was wonderful.


After I had enough swinging I started walking again. I saw a man riding his bike stop to help a man push his car that had broken down. I pet the dog of an old cowboy. I said hi to people I passed by on their front porches or walking down the street.

I walked behind some building & admired graffiti. I saw people going into the Catholic Church for the Hispanic mass and wondered why if we are all brothers & sisters we have so many seperate churches. Seperated by denominations, races, languages, nationalities, worship preferences, etc.


I passed a house with a big deck with a group of people wearing Colts' attire & watching the game on a big TV. In the yard the kids were eating ice cream & admiring their artwork they created with chalk on the sidewalk. I walked by & complimented them on their artwork. They made sure to point out the "Go Colts" they had written. I asked if the Colts were winning. As soon as I asked one of the guys cheered really loud. Me & the oldest girl looked at each other & said "must be!" & laughed. She told me that if her uncle was cheering it meant the Colts were winning. Then one of the boys showed off his empty bowl of ice cream. Then the youngest boy who was covered in dirt from head to toe with ice cream all over his face walked up to me & tapped me on my elbow (the highest point on me he could reach). I bent down to his level to see what he had to tell me & he said "they're watching football." Haha:)

Then I walked by a bright purple house & tried to pet several cats I met on my walk, but none of them would let me. This is why I don't like cats.

Then I made my way home feeling much warmer inside than I had when I left.

8-23-08

There is a man that walks past our house sometimes. I don't think he speaks English. The first time he walked by we said hi to him and he stopped, looked like he had no idea what to do, got a huge smile on his face and gave us a thumbs up sign. The last time he walked by he wasn't walking very straight. We said hi to him and he stopped, came to our fence (I thought he was going to jump it), leaned against it, smiled, slowly put his finger to his mouth and said "shhh." I still laugh thinking about it.

We have 2 friends that live down the street. Their neighbor boy is 6. He came by our house the other day with a big blow-up baseball. He thought he was funny kicking the ball into our yard. I thought I was funny when I took it and threatened not to give it back. He hit me with the newspaper on our porch that is delivered everyday & we never read. I changed the game into baseball with a blow-up ball and a newspaper bat. That was more fun than getting hit.

Yesterday we were at my friends' house. The neighbor boy came over to play with their dog. Then he & I passed the basketball back and forth and I was the hoop. Then he brought me a brownie. Then he tried roasting a raw sausage over the citrinella candle. Then he dropped it a couple times so it was a raw sausage with one tiny spot burnt, covered in wax. He went home for a second & when he got back we told him we accidentally dropped it and the dog got it. But really we tossed that nasty thing. Then he said "it's ok, I have 2 more!" shoving his hand full of raw sausage into my face. We convinced him to let us actually cook them for him inside. Then he dropped the cooked sausages and the dog really got them.