sunny d and other shiz.

Dear Reader,
Friday was my last day of work at Millville Elementary for the school year. I managed to save my tears until I got in the car to drive home. Although my job was to help these kids learn and grow, I myself did a lot of learning and growing. I learned a greater measure of patience, kindness, responsibility, and to love people despite race or disability. I'm so grateful that I have a job that allows me to interact with the brilliant, innocent minds of children. A few kids in particular will be imprinted on my heart forever.

My summer-school teaching program doesn't begin until June 13th, which gives me an entire month off. Now my original plan was to conquer my ever-growing Summer bucket list...items including:

-Chug Sunny D while blasting Cat Stevens
-Get a henna tattoo
-Go skinny dipping
-Rent Aggie Bikes and ride all over Logan
-Protest with the Hippies on Fridays in front of the Tabernacle
-Speak in an Australian accent for a full 24 hours
-Go camping up Logan Canyon
-Clean the sink at Angie's
-Find a perfect climbing tree, and spend the whole day reading in it
-Master a margarita chicken recipe
-Learn Spanish
-Do a painting of the view from my window (A lovely stream surrounded by trees)
-Go on a date with an ethnic boy
-Go to the Farmer's Market every Saturday
-Play a game of catch in every park in Logan
-Hand out one pass-along card every week
-Completely avoid listening to Smash Mouth
-Take a trip to Ashton, ID and eat a Huckleberry Mountain at 511 Main
-Get my knee better so I can run in every Cache Valley canyon

Well Reader, instead I drove home today, planning on staying a few days, and made the command decision to stay here for the next few weeks. There is just something about being home in the Summer that just warms my heart. Doing yard work in the morning with my Dad while blasting Boston and CCR, singing around the piano with my Mom, hot tub chats and Cafe Rio trips with my best friend Shaunzi, and watching animal attack videos with my sister Maren. What more do I need? I feel quite spontaneous today. So spontaneous that I randomly cut my bangs straight across today after deciding to grow them out. Who knows what other crazy shiz I might do this week. Perhaps I'll adopt an emu or change my name to Harriet. Either way, my advice to you Reader is to do something unexpected today. Sing in your local Walmart, dance in an elevator, stick your tongue out at an old person, or maybe even grab that certain someone you've had your eye on and just kiss the crap out of them. The choice is yours.

-The Swampman