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

Sneaking Ice Cream

Kelvin was upset a few days ago when my mom asked me if I wanted an ice cream bar. Kelvin was annoyed because he wanted the entire confidential stash all for his own enjoyment. They had bought ice cream the day before at the store and it was hidden on the bottom shelf of the freezer behind the bags of frozen beef and vegetables. I told Kelvin I had already known about the hidden loot from the evening before and had planned to follow house policy of whatever is in the fridge is for eating.
He looked at me, clearly amazed that I already knew his secret—it had been less than twenty-four hours! I hate leaving the poor lad in suspense so I told him in my sweetest voice, “Kelvin. I know you are the youngest child and haven’t lived with other siblings in your recent life, but there are tricks that will make it possible for you to sneak ice cream. The dead give away is trash. If you are going to eat an ice cream bar, put the wrapper underneath a layer of trash. If you leave your wrapper on top, that will be the first thing that is seen and then everyone else will know your secret”.
Kelvin nodded in awe of being taught by one so wise, “Oh…that’s smart”. I was surprised; Kelvin seemed reflective with this new piece of knowledge and admitted his own blunder. He then added a characteristically Kelvin comment, “Just don’t tell dad”.

Using dad's car

The other day we got a fresh wave of snow. It snowed all day and into the late afternoon. I had a commitment that evening and my father insisted that I take his all wheel drive vehicle. I told him I didn’t want to drive his car—it makes me nervous. He assured me I’d be fine and that if anything happened he’d just be really mad at me. I thanked him for his concern and he offered to show me how his vehicle worked before I left. Once I was ready I ran up to him and said, “Okay, I’m ready for my crash course!” He started walking towards the garage and said, “Crash course is not the name I want to use for this”.

Potpourri

I was really tired when I went to bed last night. It was fortunate that I put on a sweater and an extra blanket because the air around me was cool when I woke up. I stayed in bed for a few minutes and tried to make a plan for the day’s activities. As I pondered, I saw a shadow approach on my bedroom door.
My mom came in slowly, saw that I was awake, apologized, and asked me how my day had been. She then told me not to be alarmed that when I went upstairs all the doors would be open: gas had leaked in the garage and she had gotten up at four in the morning and cleaned it all up. It is still winter in Utah—we just got snow two days ago—and so that was why it was cooler in my bedroom. She told me I could close them when I got upstairs and that the smell was probably gone by now.
I lingered in bed a little longer and then sprung out in search for socks to keep me warm in my new colder environment. It was noticeably nippy in the house and as I went upstairs, I realized the scene in front of me was quite different than I had pictured. The two doors at the west side of the house that lead to the snow-covered porch were wide open (okay, this I did expect). However, what I did not expect was for the ceiling fan to be turned on full throttle, making a loud noise and circulating the cold, snowy air. The other surprise was to see 15 candles lit on our kitchen counter. Mom had found all of our candles: the large ivory candle with potpourri in the wax, the stout forest green one used for Halloween jack-o-lanterns, the small designed table candles given as gifts, and even all the tiny luminaria candles that were dropped in brown paper sacks layered with sand to light our driveways for Christmas. All these candles burned their scents and filled the room with a soft holiday smell (well, except for the little luminaria candles, I don’t really know why those were lit).
The entire scene was appreciated by all my senses, well, besides taste:
1. Smell: perfumed flower and spice
2. Hearing: constant rhythm of a ceiling fan
3. Touch: ceiling fan propelling cold winter air on me as I stood in my living room
4. Sight: Open doors, circling ceiling fan, a group of random candles all burning together
It felt like an awkward part in a movie just after a séance when all the doors open up and machinery goes amuck. Except this was in the daytime and I didn’t see any ghost. That is actually a really good thing. I think if I had seen something weird I would have passed out—I can’t handle scary stuff.

*Mel’s note: Potpourri turned out to be very difficult for me to spell. After I figured it out I was curious of its etymology. It is French and literally means rotten pot. I enjoyed that.

Enjoying School Supplies

Today I went to a class with my mom. It was in the middle of the day and most of the people who go to it are retired or work at home. I realized when I got there that I wasn’t the only person who showed up with their mother; in fact, there were at least twelve or more people in attendance that were having an afternoon with their mom. However, out of these twelve or more, I was the only person older than four.
I was going through old binders and notebooks from high school. I threw out most things that I found but I was impressed that at one time in my life I knew all the organs and muscles in my body, how to solve trig problems, and that I could make arguments about character development in the book Of Mice and Men. I’m sure it is still in my mind. I bet if I started a serious study of any of those subjects, these basic principles would come back, good as new. That was a tangent from what I really was impressed by: an old binder. I found a yellow spiral-bound notebook. The first page had notes I had written about cancer and as I flipped through I discovered that only the first four pages had writing on them. However, all those pages and all the blank pages preceding my notes on different diseases had a picture drawn on the upper right hand side. The picture was of a snowboarder who, depending on which page you opened it to, was snowboarding and doing a flip off a jump. If you turned the binder and flipped through the pages really fast, you would discover, as did I, that this was a little cartoon that I could watch. I was entertained and loved my brother Louie just a little bit more.
My other brother, Kelvin, asked me if I annoy him because I like to get a rise out of him. The truth of that is yes and no. Yes I like to get a rise out of him but no because most of the time it is too easy. It doesn’t take much to set him off, especially when he is tired. They are cheap thrills at best. He told me then that I:
1. Was annoying
2. Needed to get some hobbies
3. Needed some friends
While he was correct about these items, his message was discounted because
1. His tone
2. The fact he was laying on the couch and watching reruns of old shows which he would continue doing all afternoon
3. He’s Kelvin
He ended up taking a nap and waking up to be a lot nicer. So nice, in fact, he only made fun of me once or twice that evening.

*Mel’s Note: I give Kelvin a hard time and I write down the dumb stuff he says, but really he is pretty fun and I like hanging out with him