Green

Today was the second day on the job, and it rained in Vinton, Iowa. The plan had been to dig some holes for shrubs, but the back-up was to split in smaller groups and volunteer at the local schools however we could. My group went to Shellsburg Elementary school. Let me tell you about it, friend.
The first part of my morning I was in a classroom grading papers. This is entirely boring, let me repeat entirely boring. In between making cheat sheets for my own benefit I listened to the teacher who until I looked up I believed was disciplining the fourth grade class. Upon seeing, there wasn't a difference in the action I saw, only the perspective. Instead of being that kid who, "Can't keep your hands out of your mouth!?" I was watching as the teacher who wanted to help these kids out. Unfortunately then I had a lesson in the opposite. I was asked to help in the special education room where I tried to help Terry with his action verbs. The word bank was drained without much effort by the third grader, but with zero accuracy: "The rider 'snorted' the reigns with their hands." I asked Terry how you snort with your hands, and now I know how. Unfortunately after I asked him to try a different word to see if it worked better than 'snorted' he would choose seemingly at random and flip the paper around to study my face for the answer, which he usually got. People like Terry succeed in different ways.
In the afternoon, after lunch and the largest game of duck duck goose I've ever seen, I got to help Mr. Harris with PE, once with a first grade group and again with a second grade group. When Mr. Harris let it slip that there would be someone special joining the game, I immediately got picked, to the dismay of the other team. Of course I won twice, you don't have to ask, buddy, but it was only by a margin of one both times. We zipped around the gym floor on scooters trying to protect one wall from a five-foot weighted balloon ball. Legitimately I failed to save my wall once, I'm sorry, it won't happen again.
The sun came out an hour before work ended, so we learned about trees. My favorite aspect came in the "stupid questions" part of the discussion when someone pointed out a scar at the base of a tree. I asked in the life of the tree where that scar would move, up or out, but it turns out neither. The tree only grows wider, allowing the top to flourish as it too grows wide. The scar would become a cavity inside the tree, as a clipped limb creates a knot of healed bark in the center of the wood. I hope I just blew your mind, friend, since that was my reaction.
I just shaved three minutes off my mile record: 9:40, the lowest I've ever had including my track times in high school. Tonight we're having chicken spaghetti over a nice game of hot seat where my team gets to ask me a ton of questions just to get to know me. Maybe I'll even get to sleep tonight! :)

Shout-out: My high school classmate Nathan Baker has been working on a program to support homeless bloggers to raise issues about homelessness as well as local news. You can check out his idea at Idea Blob.
I've also edited my Twitter Updates so that my last five posts show there. They're silly, but I like it.