Hello everyone and Happy Belated Cherokee National Holiday!  The holiday by cherokee's for cherokee's!  The festivities were crackalackin' as the softball tournament rolled well into the night-gone-morning, the parade beat out the rain, the art shows presenting only their best, the food, the fun, and the dancing!  From sun up to sun down for four days  strait the masses came in droves to celebrate their shared heritage together and blocking angry motorist with their joi de vivoir (probably got that wrong). 

I went on Saturday with my mom, dad, younger brother and older brother and met up with two of my friends from NSU.  Heathen and Luffy were all smiles when we met up after having not seen each other for a year and we spent the entire day together.  Heathen walked down to the courthouse where I was.  Luffy had some trouble getting on his way to join us so we went to get him.  Before that was decided we stopped by the armory where an art gallery was set up.  There was one, an oil painting, that I fell in love with.  It was of a cherokee woman, beautiful of face and form, but on her neck, were two faint scars, pinker than the rest of her flesh and wide, one on the left and the right.  She was gazing off in the nothingness.  I couldn't get enough of her.  When we were finally on our way to get Luffy, Heathen was getting us all kinds of lost with his bad directions and he said that we could just drop the navigator on the curb now, which had everyone laughing.  We eventually found our way to Luffy's place and when he came out he told us what the trouble he was having was.  He'd bought a hard drive for his Xbox 360 and he was attempting to set up his Xbox live but he was having trouble.  Apparently his hard drive was from singapore and was incompatible with the english xbox live.  Poor boy.

Luffy gave me a souvenir from Japan, BANANA BANAO!  (hee)  and a hug which I greatly appreciated.  After piling all of ourselves into the van we headed over to the heritage center where were first stopped in the center itself and toured the gallery were I gave Luffy a break down of some Cherokee history as well as facts on basketry, jewelry, myths and art.  I don't know anything about the booger dancers though, I'll be looking them up later you can count on that.  Luffy wants to learn how to make baskets.  I told him how to do it but he'll need some help at first I think.  Then we went out to get the residing white boy, Heathen, some food because he is seriously like a bottomless pit; scrawny though he is, he can put away the food.  Indian tacooooooos!!!  Well, Luffy and I had that but Heathen got himself a chilli dog and something fried on a stick. 

We then watched the visiting warriors from the eastern band who did some dances and singing.  Luffy had his picture taken with them.  Then we went on the tour of the village which is set up to resemble a Cherokee settling some 600 years ago.  Luffy and Heathen were all over the idea and we attached ourselves to the back of tour group heading in and enjoyed the information the man at the front told us.  I had to explain about clans and such to Luffy, telling him which clan my family belonged to as well. 

Heck, I learned a couple of things too.

Afterwards, after a quick scan of a couple of booths, we hustled to the van where my boys fell asleep and mom and dad dropped me, my boys, and my brothers off at the stomp grounds where we were four and a half hours early.  My boys were about to die, of both heat and tiredness.  I sent Kanawl on a discreet mission to get water and I hunted up some shade.  Heathen is always unfailingly polite and thanked me for the water and the shade (which I can't take credit for since I didn't build the awning we were huddling under and Kanawl fetched the water) and we relaxed as much as we were able to.  Heathen was miserable, poor soul, he's an inside flower so the sun and air were disagreeable for him but he didn't complain, not Heathen, he suffered in silence but I knew that silence.  I told him I was sorry; it was my fault for poor planning.  But he told me not to say that.  Luffy pulled three chairs together and fell asleep there. 

We got the boot from the awning because the people it was reserved for showed up so we relocated but quickly got kicked out of that too.  So we moved to the bleachers where Heathen fell alseep for a while.  I had a pounding headached brewing but I kept it to myself, no need to bug anyone.  Serioiusly, none of us was carrying painkillers.  And it was a stupid thing to whine about. 

It took forever but the pow wow eventually got on it's way and my boys enjoyed it, Luffy has pictures now which he can show to his friends and family back in Japan.  THere were fireworks which were awesome, they started before the chief started his speech and kept going after he was done.  I mentioned to the boys that the dancers shouldn't have to compete with fireworks on one side and lightning on the other.  There was a storm going over us, which I am grateful didn't break over us and was peaceably pushed off by the wind.  Luffy and I were earlier betting on when the rain would fall.  He was wrong and I really hadn't said what I thought but I would have lost too.  I remember a couple of them exploded into a rain of gold sparks that as the fell, they spread out and sparkled like stars, lingering as they faded.  Luffy said that he usually complains about fireworks in japan as well as in america but he liked those that night.  Heathen agreed.

I explained to Luffy about the different dances, and how the men had more than the women.  The fun part was when they both went out with me during the inter-tribal dances.  I showed them the basic steps and when they tried it out, Luffy had this jerky movement and Heathen was bopping.  It was so cute, and so funny, I was trying really hard not to laugh.  We walked around the booths and Luffy bought a cup made from a buffalo horn and I purchased a pair of earrings.  Heathen spent his money on food. 
We caught part of the fancy dancing from the men which had Heathen in awe.  I personally enjoy seeing the men's northern fancy dance.  And feather dancers rule.
We didn't leave until after eleven.  By then my headache was reaching it's crescendo of pain and my parents, who picked us up, stopped at a convenience store for me and I fetched enough painkillers to choke a horse before we went to drop my boys off.

When we got to the dorms, I teased that we could leave the navigator on the corner and everyone laughed.   Heathen was ...I guess the best word is baffled, by something his girlfriend did that he didn't understand.  I believe he did understand but didn't like it.  She followed a fad, multiple piercings in her ears, it's a trend in japan right now and she'd gone home for the summer so she was there when it kicked in.  This led into where we would let them off and Heathen said we didn't have to go all the way to their dorms but mom wasn't having it and this persisted until I touched both Heathen and Luffy lightly on the shoulder and said only 'Drop it' and Heathen stopped protesting.  I joked about listening to me cause I was older.  They asked how old I was and were greatly surprised to hear that I was 23, older than both of them (someone at work said that I looked younger than that when I told her about it), and Luffy said he had to respect me because of it.  He was kidding, as well as Heathen but they said that they really did respect me though.  They're sweet boys.  And so we let Heathen off at his dorm and then took Luffy back to his.  We hugged and then my family and I left for home.

It was a lovely day and I'm so, so glad that I had that time with them before I move.  It will be bittersweet to go.  I know it doesn't sound nice, but every time I've left Oklahoma for someplace else, I've never felt sad about it, like I was leaving someone behind.  My family would be fine, I would be fine away from them, the friends from high school, I was not so important to them so I didn't shed remorse for them; but for these two, I'm going to miss them.