Eighteen Years

For the background to what today means to me, go here.

Eighteen is such a great and interesting age.  They tell you that you are a grown-up, but scientists know the parts of your brain that make good decisions aren't finished forming, and you act like a child quite often still.  (So does everyone on occasion, by the way, but that's a different subject.)

The world is wide open to you, higher education is around the corner, you can drive and get out of the house when you want, so much is possible.

The last couple of days i've been a bit weepy, and it actually took me by surprise this year.  Being in the hospital made me lose days, and i'm still catching up.

So today would be 18 years, had she lived.

Yes, i still wonder what life might have been like, and yes, i still think everything i went through was worth it.


Today is

Comic-Con International -- San Diego, CA, US (through the 15th)

Different Colored Eyes Day -- people with heterochromia, celebrate!

Hot Dog Night -- Luverne, MN, US (free hot dogs to all comers!)

Independence Day -- Kiribati(1979); Sao Tome & Principe(1975)

Kronia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate, a festival for Kronos, part of which included masters and slaves switching places for a meal)

National Pecan Pie Day

Orangemen's Day (a/k/a Twelfth Day) -- Northern Ireland

Oregon Trail Days -- Gering, NE, US (through the 15th, the oldest continuing celebration of the Oregon Trail)

Rainmaker Day -- Salem, Oregon (while it is understood that in Salem, you are more likely to rust than sunburn, from 1892 until 2006, no measurable rain fell on this date in this normally wet city)

San Francisco Silent Film Festival -- Castro Theatre, San Francisco, CA, US (through the 15th, a celebration of the art of silent film)

Simplicity Day -- sponsored by www.doonething.org on Thoreau's birthday, highlighting the concepts in the book Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin, and advocating finding sustainable ways to live

St. John Gualbert's Day (Patron of foresters and forest workers, park services and parks)

St. Veronica's Day (Patron of laundry workers and photographers)


Anniversaries Today

Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, 1543 (the one who outlived him)


Birthdays Today

Michelle Rodriguez, 1978
Brock Lesnar, 1977
Kristi Yamaguchi, 1971
Cheryl Ladd, 1951
Richard Simmons, 1948
Christine McVie, 1943
Bill Cosby, 1937
Van Cliburn, 1934
Andrew Wyeth, 1917
Milton Berle, 1908
Pablo Neruda, 1904
R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895
Oscar Hammerstein II, 1895
George Washington Carver, 1861
George Ohr, 1857
George Eastman, 1854
Henry David Thoreau, 1817
Josiah Wedgwood, 1730


Today in History

England is unified by Athelstan of England, 927
Saladin's garrison surrenders to Conrad of Montferrat, ending the two-year siege of Acre, 1191
Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatan, burns the sacred books of the Maya, 1562
Ostrog Bible, the first printed Bible in a Slavic language, is published, 1580
The United States invades Canada at Windsor, Ontario, 1812
The Commonwealth Franchise Act, granting women's suffrage in Australia, is given royal assent and takes effect, 1902
Pune, India floods due to failure of Khadakvasala and Panshet dams; half of the city is submerged and the death toll exceeded 2000, 1961
A fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States, 1973
Boris Yeltsin quits the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1990
Israel invades Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, 2006
A ticket holder in Britain wins the largest EuroMillions jackpot in history, 161,653,000GBP, 2011