An Outing at Michael's

Okay I just have to tell this story cause I feel like if I don't no one will ever know how crazy my little girl was. When I had Brianne I was fortunate to have friends that had babies at the same time. The reason I say that is , you have other young women going through just what you are. Working, raising a baby, daycare/or babysitters. It's just nice having others that are in the same lifestyle that you are. They understand. The sleep deprivation,the illnesses,from diaper rash to croup. They get it. Well we young mother had a craft club, well we made shitty things that no one wanted and we had a night out. (Unlike my sister-in-law, Caroline who really made cool stuff) My craft club stuff was Lame-O. Okay, who cared. It was a night to be with my peers and we could talk babies, husbands, work, whatever. Well, I made the mistake one evening to go with two other Mommies to Michael's craft store WITH my baby.


Okay these two ladies had little boys that just sat. I am not kidding they didn't move. And both these boys were born before Brianne, mind you. They were perfect angels in the carts. They never moved. Bri on the other hand could not sit in the cart. She was diving and going to kill herself if I didn't let her out of the cart. So I let the kid out of the cart. She takes off down the isle straight to the baskets. Baskets were real big in the seventies, and there were lots of them. Every basket on the shelf was thrown in all directions. I couldn't catch her. I tried to keep my composure. As I ran after her and she rips down another isle. Meanwhile the two tottler boys are in their seats sitting perfectly fine. They freaking were perfect. I couldn't take this any longer.
I found what I needed, grabbed the girl. I pinned her with my knee up against the cash register desk.So I could get to my money. As her arms and legs were flailing about, she was screaming, "let me go!" even in all this chaos, I thought to myself....I think that was pretty advanced for a one year old,don't you? Those two boys couldn't say shit if they had a mouth full. I was totally pitting out and trying to compose myself, as I went to the car she was screaming, I strapped her in her seat crying," Let me go!"


One of Mommies said to me ," Jill, I have never seen you loose your cool. "I said," you have never seen me shopping with my child,....... and you never will again." Did I really loose my cool? I just had never been in that situation before. Yet,that was the last time I ever took my little girl shopping with other Mommies and their babies. If I remember correctly the boy really wasn't into the shopping thing at one year old either. And still isn't.

An Inquiry From Indiana

Rob and I were watching the Purdue ~ Ohio State game last night and a commercial came on TV about Big Ten football. What I really noticed was this giant Indiana Jones looking Buckeye was barrelling down the street with other so called symbols of the big ten school teams. Now, I can not even tell you what other characters were , there were lots of animals that they showed along with the buckeye, but I asked Rob, What is a Hoosier? I mean what would they use in this commercial to represent a Hoosier? His answer was , IU would never be represented in a commercial like that. So it was obvious to me at that point that it was about football. Because we all know that Indiana is always included whether they deserve to be or not when basketball is the topic of conversation. I have lived in Indiana for almost 20 years and really, I don't know what in the hell a Hoosier is. So I looked it up. It's not a pretty picture.




The first explanation I found said something about crackers, hillbillies and an unmannerly objectionable person. Well if that is the case there was this lady in New York City at a bagel shop who acted like a Hoosier and she sure as hell had a freaking New York accent. Then I read on before it's use in America, Hoosier was used in England to refer to someone who lived in the hills or the mountains. Well I do not understand how that would have been translated to Indiana, cause Indiana is a pretty flat state. Now we do have some hills down here where we live now, but for the most part the state is flat. Ask anyone who drives across I- 70 for any length of time.

While searching the Inter net I found another long-time resident of Indiana, Michael Molenda who had the same quest as I , but he actually did the leg work by going to the library and researching the dang thang. (I figure if you all have the same views of Hoosier as my previous paragraph, I may as well play the part.) I was surprised to find out that, the first time the term Hoosier used as a person from Indiana, was in a newspaper in 1832. So the connotation has been around quite awhile. Then here is another take, and I actually like this explanation. He stated that during the American Civil War many soldiers from all over the US came together for the first time and nicknames ensued , some with negative connotations, eventually were accepted in a positive light, he states. Indiana=Hoosiers, Maine=Foxes, Delaware=Muskrats, Ohio=Buckeyes, Wisconsin=Badgers, Iowa=Hawkeyes and New York=Knickerbockers.

That sorta made Hoosiers more palatable for me. Now, touching on the folklore of where Hoosiers has derived is very interesting and actually these were the stories that I have heard from the time as residents of Indiana. One story about the early settlers being ferocious fighters, and would frequently not only scratch and gouge, but bite off noses and ears, not much unlike Mike Tyson, (was he from Indiana or just tried here?) While during the fight these small body parts lying on the floor, and someone asking, whose ear? Another story tells of settlers being very inquisitive people and opening doors saying who's here? Which sounds to me some guy was in a bar watching a basketball game and came up with that one. There's another legend that it was derived from a family name. The foreman over the group of men working on the banks of Ohio River was named Hoosier. The workers were from Indiana side of the river and eventually the Indiana workers in general were referred to as Hoosiers. I'm really not buying that one. At any rate I guess I found some answers to the... what's a Hoosier question. Probably more than anyone reading this blog would like to know on the subject.

My thoughts on the exact origin probably leans toward the rustic, poor white farmers, or hillbillies. Even in French, osier means someone from the countryside. I want to cringe at the uneducated hilljack connotation. Even the movie Hoosiers follows the poor white farmer attitude, when the basketball team from a small rural community came to the big city, Indianapolis and beat the big school from South Bend to win State. (That was taken from a true story)
I guess being a Hoosier is better than a rooster or even a nut. Now will someone please tell me what a Knickerbocker is?

Granny's Gone Wild

Well we had a fun filled week in little old Jasper with a visit from Rob's Mom, aka Ga ga woof woof, Nana Julie or just plain Grandma. We started the week with a little shopping, some cooking, even hitting the slots in French lick, ended up with nine holes of golf. It was a crazy week. I am so sore. If Grandma is hurting she didn't let on. This gives me a whole new outlook for my golden years. In between all our excursions she read three books! We really had fun. When we were gambling (with Rob's money,I might add) on the two cent slots, she was winning like mad. The sound of those bells and whistles just make me want to smile. Those cha- chinging sounds racking up the dough, you'd think you won a fortune...and it'd be 4 bucks. It was fun anyways. I really wanted her to win that little red corvette. News flash...it didn't happen.

When the weekend came Brianne brought Baba Louie and again , chasing after him just about wore me out. There is a reason why God won't let fifty year old women have babies, (naturally). So Great Grandma got to see little Abe tottling around and bumping and bruising about. Very different little guy from last April. Brianne has got her hands full, which is another fun thing for us grandmas to relive the old days about our little ones.

Robby blew in Saturday with his"Sidney dog dog", which Abe just laughed and laughed about, until the dog knocked him over....and then there were tears. We had a giant Sport's weekend complete with college football, professional baseball and professional football , and even middleweight boxing. "The Ghost" a Youngtsown boy won his fight for the middleweight championship on HBO. I loved every second. As Sunday morning came along, and each family member left, I was sadder and sadder. Thank goodness Robby forgot his serious radio, so he had to stay till after the Browns game.When he left, after that game was over, that's when we were back to normal, just me and Rob. Give me chaos any day of the week, actually give me chaos for a week, I loved it, and I loved my visit with grandma.