By Ricey Wild
This past May 26 featured a Super Flower Blood Moon and total eclipse. It happened on my birthday, and I was excited and a bit apprehensive because of astronomy and astrology. I’m into those subjects and even used to write horoscopes with Native people in mind. Anyway, nothing mind-blowing happened except that I got out of my house.
My dear ole Unk brought me to the Risky Raccoon Kasino buffet. I have new dresses, so I adorned myself in one and put on a face, too. When I went inside the casino I was carded and oh, so flattered! I told the guard he will be so surprised at how old I am and thanked him. I told my ole Unk this and he scoffed it off saying, “They card everyone now! Even if you’re 99!” That shot me down real quick. Jeez.
We ate prime rib and I had a layered cheesecake for dessert, it was yummy and I enjoyed being treated to an evening out. I’ve been missing going to the casino to socialize and donate and now everything is different, all of it due to the COVID-19 virus. Not many people in there are wearing masks now, but the staff has to and there is polyglass protection everywhere. There are many new rules and the casino does not have the same vibe, like that of the sensual depravity I used to enjoy. LOL!
Well, in the past I could go there to relax or get wound up, and just be alone in a place with a thousand other people. Now one cannot even smoke! Might as well go to church yanno and repent for very vague, stupid human actions they call ‘sin’ – which no Indigenous person has ever been born into. *putting brakes on that for now*
Come time to leave the security guards were not letting anyone out, with no explanation. I sez to my Unk I sez, is this how they (the tribe) are making money now? By not letting us leave? Lemme tell you it is agonizing to be in a casino with zero, zip money for one’s self to gamble with.
We finally got to leave and while I did bring baggies so I could kipe some treats for the dogettes, my leftover prime rib was rudely swept away by a thoughtless server who must hate little dogs.
This pandemic has taken so much away that we took for granted in our daily lives. I have gotten hugs I needed for so long from my niece and nephew, who are both fully vaxxed as I am. But I won’t be breathing in the air of, or touching people who have not gotten vaccinated or refuse to. That is my stance; y’all have your own and I respect your choice.
My dear friend Jo sent me a birthday care package with yummies for all of the rez-idents of this house. Miigwech! My Unk brought me a laundry basket of his mother’s old shoes and only one pair matches. Maybe I can make a shoe collage like some kinda art with them or throw them at the dogs when they get too screechy barking at dandelion fluff. Naw, don’t go there, I’m a bad thrower.
Going outside my comfortable lair into a coronavirus world got me all anxious. Not of being afraid to die – no, more like after so long noting the differences of how things are today. I was all like, “Look! People!” “The trees have leaves!” “No snow or ice on the roads!” In a recent foray into this small-minded and racist town, I forgot how to ‘people’ and use my own debit card in a store. The young pink cashier yelled out, “We have a problem here!” And he was right. So that experience brought me back to reality in that I am a ‘problem.’ They just don’t even know. I’ve had a lot of time to think, which is dangerous, and while I’ve talked out my sassy side my whole life, I cannot be completely silent any longer.
If anything spoke as loud as the virus, it was the murder of George Floyd last year and the following eruption of good people who had enough horror and acted. They marched and made sure that his horrific death would not go through the blue sieve like it always has. Some, not all, changes in policing have been made but there is minuscule progress as yet.
The only reason my fingerprints are on the Minneapolis Police Department files is that I was arrested on ‘probable cause’ and somehow when I went to sue the department there were no records of the incident at all. Corruption.
Ima be lighting a Solstice fire even if I’m all by myself. I hope I don’t fall into one again. We will see. Sending out love, blessings and comfort to all.
