Finally Typical?

When Bigger Girl was at an adoption event, two teens walked in to the pet store with parrots. The teens were wearing black, and looked rather Goth, but Bigger Girl walked up to them and said, "Beautiful birds, how smart are they? Have you tested or trained them?"

The two looked at each other, and answered that they were in the process of training, and had been since they were hatched. It surprised them, as most of the time adults and other teens don't talk to them much, they noted, and kids just look at the parrots, look at them, and then ask if they are vampires.

So Bigger Girl made two new friends. They exchanged email addresses, and began writing. Finally, they asked her why she didn't text them, because they prefer it.

Well, Bigger Girl does have a phone, but was never interested in using it except for emergencies or to call for a ride home. She hadn't ever sent a text, and hadn't a clue how.

Now she has a clue. She and her new friends are texting buddies, and she has seen all of their videos of them training the birds. They are going to meet up at the hospital after the young man, Jay, has his scoliosis surgery. The girl, Marty, is going to be with him there already.

So, two 18-year-old friends who share ownership of and train parrots have been having intellectual conversations with Bigger Girl about prop logic and other subjects most teens wouldn't bother with, via text message. She is finally a typical teen, sort of.


Today is

Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival -- Windsor to Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada (through the 30th)

Africa Day / African Liberation Day -- African Union

Bath International Music Festival -- Bath, UK (through June 5)

Cookie Monster's Birthday -- go have a cookie to celebrate!

First Patriotic Government / National Day -- Argentina

Flitting Day -- parts of England; Scotland (traditional day on which leases were up for the year and people moved)

Geek Pride Day / Star Wars Day

Independence Day -- Jordan

Liberation Day -- Lebanon

National Missing Children's Day

National Senior Health and Fitness Day

National Tap Dance Day

National Wine Day

Poetry Day -- Florida, US

Procession of the Statue of Artemis -- Ancient Greek and Roman Calendars, at Ephesus

Self-Reliance Day -- an internet originated holiday, based on the idea that we should all become more self reliant in this day when it is a dying art.

St. Aldhelm's Day

St. Bede the Venerable's Day

St. Gregory VII's Day

St. Urban's Day

Towel Day -- Douglas Adams fans, unite! Always know where your towel is.

Week of Solidarity with the People Of Non-Self-Governing Territories begins -- United Nations


Birthdays Today:

Lauryn Hill, 1975
Anne Heche, 1969
Stacy London, 1969
Mike Myers, 1963
Connie Sellecca, 1955
Frank Oz, 1944
Leslie Uggams, 1943
Ian McKellen, 1939
Tom T. Hall, 1936
Beverly Sills, 1929
Robert Ludlum, 1927
Jeanne Crain, 1925
Claude Akins, 1918
Igor Sikorsky, 1889
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, 1878
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803


Today in History:

First recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet, BC240
Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo, Spain back from the Moors, 1085
Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ, 1420
The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw, 1521
Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth of England, 1659
Jews are expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek, 1784
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States, 1787
In the May Revolution, citizens of Buenos Aires expel the Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros during the Semana de Mayo, 1810
The Patriots of Lower Canada (Quebec) rebel against the British for freedom, 1837
The first telegraphed news dispatch is published in Baltimore Patriot, 1844
Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London, 1878
The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president, 1895
John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in Tennessee, 1925
Henry Ford stops production of the Model T to begin the Model A, 1927
Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks five world records and ties a sixth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1935
The first ascent of Kangchenjunga (8,586 m.), the third highest mountain in the world, by a British expedition, 1955
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organisation of African Unity is established, 1963
Star Wars (retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981) is released in theaters, inspiring the Jediism religion and Geek Pride Day holiday, 1977
Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people, 1985
Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion, 2000
32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 2001