My Daughter is getting married

My daughter Charitina is getting married this Sunday. The family is all together and things are getting hectic. My aunt forgot my name, my cousin said "I am putting the fish in the chicken." I have been running around in circles and sometimes find that I tell someone half a sentence and walk away to finish something I started but didn't finish. Crazy fun times! My mother and her sister's are together again - the brother's are not all here. Memories of those that passed on makes some moments bittersweet but that just brings us closer together.

Oh how I wish you could have seen those raspberries!

mm-MM! I have not seen such a sight since childhood! Ruby red raspberries glistening between green grass with the evening sunshine beaming between the trees. How I wished for a camera! They were perfectly ripe and some were so big the branches were drooping from the weight of the fruit. My aunt, sister and I needed a break from our various duties within the village but my sister was the health aide on call so she was not allowed to stray from the village. One of the drawbacks of being a health aide. I have been substituting as the manager of the corporation store as my aunt takes some of her annual leave. I used to be the manager of the store some years back but the hours are long, duties are numerous and the pay is cheap. I work more to ease my aunt's burden (she is now the manager of the store) than to get the $10.00 per hour wages. Shucks, I have digressed from the topic of those beautifully delicious berries. My bad. With my daughter's wedding only a week away I have been juggling my finances, time, energy, focus and sanity to the point that the moments of tranquility in nature is much too precious not to enjoy to the fullest. The only bugging part of the evening was the bugs. If someone could invent a way to go picking berries without getting picked on by bugs until one wants to rub repellant constantly all over oneself that person would be a millionaire in Rural Alaska. The gnats and no-see-ums were worst around the juiciest and biggest berries. Three times my aunt said "I have had enough" before we actually came out of the woods and back onto the beach.

My Granddaughter's Baptism

A complication of contemporary names and baptism is matching names. My grandchild's name is Jordan Skyler - Jordan is listed in the baptismal names as a masculine saint's name. Skyler is not listed at all. This was the Priest's first baptism and to end the confusion he asked us to pick a feminine name to christian Jordan. We ended up choosing Elizabeth to honor her paternal great-grandmother. Elizabeth is also the baptismal name for my daughter Maxine Elizabeth, her mother. She was born on my aunt's 30th anniversary so we asked her to be the Godmother. This issue of names matching the birth record and sex of the saint whose name is a long and ongoing argument. I am glad I am in no position to make official opinions on the subject!

The Heat is ON!! but I wonder if there will be blueberries?

Oh what a wonderful Sunday afternoon I had! The sun was out and it was actually warm and I spent the afternoon with my grandmother, my aunts and their families and my son out enjoying nature. The river was calm, the geese were flying in flocks, the bugs were not many... mmm ... what a blessing! The only sad part was that again there was no blueberries. The second area close to home and the tundra was so dry. I brought my baby with me - he was so HEAVY :D. But I found a way to carry him on my back using my kuspuk, taking cue from those old pictures of native women carrying their babies on their backs. My cousin and I were trying to figure things out and Nicholas was laughing as though he was getting a kick at our expense. When I finally got him where I was semi-certain he would not be dropping out behind me I tried to bend down to see how he would take it and he giggled in my ear every time. Missy took pictures I hope I get to post here. An afternoon to treasure also in that we got to take my grandmother out to her allotment adjacent to her departed sister's allotment where they had spent many happy years picking berries. She hardly gets to go out anymore like she used to. We had a picnic supper at the beach watching flocks of geese fly above the river, feeling the warmth - warmth of the sun for once since the three days in June we had a hot afternoon.... I can return to the windowless store tomorrow with a renewed spirit and a sunburnt nose.