blue-green

I substitute taught for a Kindergarten class. It was a good leap into the world of subbing. I came home tired but happy to have had an opportunity to work.
For one of the activities the kindergarteners were paired with a third grader who helped them color a picture of a rainbow and then to fill in a poem:

Rainbow Riches
They say at the rainbow’s end
A pot of gold you’ll find.
But I wish that pot was filled with

____________________________
and that they were all mine.

The example had “money” written in the blank and then displayed quickly colored green rectangles poking out of a black pot. When the children came up to me to staple the pictures, I would ask them what they put in their pot, and they would flip to the last page and show me their desired bounty. A few stood out to me including:
1. pickles
2. teeth (This one was really funny to me. Maybe they associate teeth with money because they can put it under their pillow for the tooth fairy.)
3. cake with gold (This seemed like it was a compromise. I can picture the kindergartener wanting a cake and the third grader, seeing this as an opportunity to wish for anything, convincing the kindergartener to do a cake decorated with gold)
4. potatoes

A few other highlights from the day included:
-A kindergartener and third grader asked me to spell turquoise. I stalled and told them to look on a crayon. The crayon ended up saying ‘blue-green’. I am nervous about spelling but I told myself to suck it up; they are kindergarteners and third graders. So I started, “Er…T,” and then I thought for just a half second, “U-R-Q-U-O-I-S-E.” Yay! Good job, self!
-In the afternoon session I had a girl who wanted me to supervise her every move. This was not possible because I was supervising an entire class. Some of her tablemates informed me as I did a walk by to help them write their numbers that she did not have any erasers on her pencils because she ate them. I nodded, and smiled a little, then continued around the room to help others. A few minutes later I heard a high-pitched shriek from the other side of the room, “Teacher! Monica is eating her eraser!” I turn around to see that she had taken a neighbor’s pencil and was nibbling the delectable pink tip. I then found myself walking over there, grabbing her hand and saying in a stern voice, “Monica! Stop eating your eraser!” I thought this was funny/unusual but actually, I am finding it is fairly normal. In a few other classes I’ve been to I have found other eraser eaters.
-At the end of the morning session I was walking the Kindergarteners out to meet their rides home. They hit the outdoors and then ran around the corner to their busses and moms. A minute later a little light haired boy in a red striped sweater came running back, threw his arms out wide, hugged my legs, and then ran back around the corner out of sight. I loved it. And I love kindergarteners.
* Mel’s note: I looked up turquoise just now on a spelling bee list (for grades 4 and up into high school). They ranked l the words by difficulty into brackets by letters of the alphabet, A-T; turquoise was listed as an “S” difficulty. I guess I have that going for me.

The Airline Gene

My mother’s side of the family has a genetic inclination towards working for the airline industry. My grandfather wanted to be a pilot and introduced the world of travel to my grandmother. She discovered her love of travel and began to work for United Airlines; making it easier for her family to explore many cities and countries. My mother grew up with the idea of the world being an airport away and now works for JetBlue airlines, allowing my family to travel a bit easier.
Since I am looking for work, I have that natural, genetic inclination to look for work with the airlines. This decision is made with careful consideration of where different hubs are located, where the best flight coverage is, and which airlines are not already represented by a cousin or different family member. This criteria lead to a few airlines, the best choice being Delta [Delta has a flight that is beautiful to me—nonstop from Salt Lake City to Prague, that is reason enough to work for them].
My mom and I decided that Delta would be an incredible airline to work for--solely on flight benefits. Knowing just a little bit about flight benefits I asked my mom about the different perks that are offered by a few major airlines. For United and JetBlue benefits: spouses, children (who are under 21), and the parents of the employee fly free*. This is stanby flying and so you play with the risks of not getting on the flight, having to sleep in airports, using odd connections, and spending lots of time in airports. An interesting aspect to me is that parents fly free for a few of the major airlines.
The hampster in my mind that runs on the thought-producing plastic wheel started going double speed and I was struck with brilliance. The airline job is not extremely attractive as full time work at the low salary most employees are played. However, because there are benefits for my parents if I work for Delta, I realized a second incentive that could encourage for me to work for Delta.
“Mom? How much would YOU pay me to work for Delta?”

*Mel's note: When I say free, I mean that they don’t have to pay the full flight price but there are airport and country fees

Fortune Cookie

My friend Katie and I were at a Chinese New Year party. They had some traditional foods and had also provided fortune cookies. I hadn’t gotten a cookie yet but Katie had pulled one from the glass dish and was telling me of her dislike for advice cookies—the cookies that tell you good things to do vs. cookies that have a fortune in them. I saw her put pressure on both ends of the cookie and then heard the familiar popping sound accompanied by the twisting of the paper out of its edible tomb. She read her fortune and then walked over to me, folding the thin fortune in half and putting it in my pocket.
“I want you,” she said in a serious tone, “to think about this very carefully”. I nodded, intrigued, and promised I would read it later in solemnity.
On the way home I felt for my pocket and pulled out the folded fortune. I moved towards the light and read the fortune:

VERY SOON A FRIEND WILL SURPRISE YOU WITH A GIFT