Word of the Day: Worms

Let me begin this post by giving you an approximate transcription of the phone conversation I had yesterday evening:

Me: Hello?

Rex: Get your rain coat.

Me: Excuse me?

Rex: Get your rain coat. We have a MAJOR worm recon project.

Me: Uh...worm recon?

Rex: YES! They're drowning all over the place on the sidewalks. I have glass jars in my room. We are going to fill them with dirt, save the drowning worms, and then dump them out on the ground when it is dry again.

Me: Let me get this straight - you expect me to go out in the cold rain to save a bunch of worms by putting them in glass jars filled with dirt I dug up........?

Rex: Yeah

Me: Awesome. I'm so in.

And that's just what we did. We went out in the rain and saved ~100 worms in five glass jars. They are now proudly displayed on my windowsill while we wait for the ground to dry out enough to release them again. Those lucky little guys. There were hundreds more out on the sidewalks today who were not as fortunate. I bet in worm social circles this rainstorm will be hereafter known as "The great worm massacre of 2010." Sad day.

It was fun collecting worms, though. At one point Rex said, "Do you a little bit feel like you're two right now?" "Yes." "Good. Me too. Just making sure we're on the same page." One of the best parts was the weird looks we got from people while we were picking up the worms. I mean, really...it's not something they see every day. Also, at one point we got to a patch of sidewalk where all of the worms were significantly darker than the other worms. Rex and I decided to call it the "Worm Hood." They are in our jar of "ghetto worms."

One time I was trying to pick up a worm and half of it came off in my hand - AHHHH!! I picked up the other half too and put them together in the jar, though, as if that would somehow fix it or something.

After we were done collecting our worms, we decided to eat Easter candy in my room and watch them wiggle around in the sides of the jars. It's kind of like an ant farm, but with more worms and less ants. It's actually pretty cool - try it sometime. Anyway, I unwrapped a chocolate, popped a chocolate in my mouth, and then realized that I hadn't washed my hands yet. EWWWWWWWWW!!! So if I die from some wormy disease sometime soon, you know why.

I hope those worms appreciate my sacrifice.