Guess Who?

"Guess who I talked to today?  Violet called me, and we talked for a good 45 minutes!"

Sweetie and his identical twin brother have a biological sister, and an adopted sister.  This is the biological sister, who doesn't talk to them often.

How is she doing? i asked, a bit startled.  If my memory serves me, she hasn't ever spoken to Sweetie for that long at one time except when they were physically visiting each other.

"She's tired of Montana," he said as he started rummaging in the fridge for an apple.  "She wants prayer that an opportunity will open up for her to move to someplace warmer, like New Mexico.  She's not sure she can take another winter up there, it's so hard on her physically."

That i can understand, i noted.  Cold is not my friend.  So, where is she working these days?

"She's putting in 46 hours a week at a chain grocery store, and she really wants to be working with children," he said.  "Even though she's single and has no kids, she's always loved working with children."

Yes, i remember that.  What else did you talk about for that long?

"Oh, things we both remember about our mother and father.  She talked about some of their quirks I didn't know much about, since I didn't grow up with them and she did.  We talked about how sad it was when she had to sell our father's house and use the money to pay the debts.  Oh, and I told her that we have the picture!"

Sweetie has a picture of her that was blown up to life size by their father; he gave it to Sweetie a few months before he died.

What did she think about that? i asked.

"Oh, she laughed!  She was only 16 in that picture, with braces.  She remembers when it was taken, and thinks it's funny that we have it.  I told her that it looks a good bit like our Bigger Girl, and she seemed to like that."

New Mexico, then, i said.  Okay, i'll be praying she gets to move somewhere warm, and gets a better job than just over minimum wage at a chain grocery.

"She'd appreciate that," he noted as he walked off, crunching his apple..


Today is

Aoi Matsuri -- Kyoto, Japan (Hollyhock Festival, a pageant reproducing ancient imperial processions)

Cannes Film Festival -- through the 26th

Cold Sophie's Day (5th Ice Saint; according to Nordic legend, this day may be very cold, but there will be no more frosts after this)

Flip Your Mattress Day -- because it's a good thing to do

Hyperemisis Gravidarum Awareness Day -- bringing attention to morning sickness that becomes life-threatening

Ides of May -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances
     Feast of Maia and Vesta
     Mercuralia -- festival for Mercury
     Sacrifice day to the Tiber River

Independence Day -- Paraguay

International Conscientious Objectors' Day

International Day of Families -- UN

International MPS Awareness Day -- here for details about these inherited diseases

Kan Phuetchamongkhon -- Thailand (Royal Plowing and Farmers Day) 6th day 4th lunar month

La Corsa del Ceri -- Gubbio, Italy (festival on the eve of the saint day of the city's patron, St. Ubaldo)
Mother's Day -- Paraguay

National Chocolate Chip Day

National Safety Dose Day -- cannot confirm they sponsor a day any more, but the Safety Dose people still want us to remember that more is not necessarily better when it comes to taking medicines, and to dose them correctly for children

Nylon Stockings Day -- they went on sale at stores around the US this date in 1940

Over the Rainbow Day -- birth anniversary of Lyman Frank Baum

Peace Officers Memorial Day -- US

Pithi Chrat Preah Neanng Kori -- Cambodia (Royal Plowing Ceremony)

Relive Your Past By Listening to the First Music You Ever Bought No Matter What It Was No Excuses Day -- no, i can't find out who started this, or why; maybe we should all take a pass at this one

Sea Monkey Day -- because somebody really loves theirs, and wants you to love them, too

Shavuot -- Judaism (Pentecost, began at sundown yesterday, through sundown tomorrow)

St. Dymphna's Day (Patron of epileptics, family happiness, incest victims, martyrs, mental asylums/hospitals, mental health caregivers and professionals/psychiatrists/therapists, mentally ill people, nervous disorders, neurological disorders, possessed people, princesses, rape victims, runaways, sleepwalkers, those who have lost parents; against sleepwalking, epilepsy, insanity, mental disorders, mental illness)

St. Hallvard's Day (Patron of Oslo; protector of innocence and virtue)

St. Isidore of Madrid's Day (a/k/a Isidore the Farmer; Patron of agricultural workers/farm workers/farmers/field hands/husbandmen/ranchers, day laborers, livestock, rural communities; Angono, Philippines; Asturias, Cebu, Philippines; Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines; Carampa, Peru; Castalla, Spain; Cuz Cuz, Chile; Digos, Philippines; Estepona, Spain; La Celba, Honduras; Leon, Spain; Lima, Peru; Lucban, Philippines; Madrid, Spain; Malaybalay, Philippines, diocese of; Morong, Philippines; Nabas, Philippines; Orotava, Spain; Pulilan, Philippines; Pulupandan, Philippines; Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico; San Isidro, Argentina; Saragossa, Spain; Sariaya, Philippines; Seville, Spain; Tavalera, Philippines; Tayabas, Philippines; United States National Rural Life Conference; against the death of children)
     Carabao Festival -- San Isidro, Pulilan, and Angono, Philippines (second day and main festival; on St. Isidore of Madrid's Day; the farming communities celebrate their beasts of burden and have them blessed)
     Municipal Holiday -- Madrid
     San Isidro Day -- Mexico

St. Sophia of Rome's Day (considered by some to be among the Ice Saints, and invoked for protection against frost)

Straw Hat Day -- just as you don't wear white after Labor Day, you don't wear straw hats before today, the unofficial start of summer and the official start of straw hat season

Teacher's Day -- Mexico; South Korea

Tuberous Sclerosis Global Awareness Day -- http://www.tsalliance.org/index.aspx

Turn Beauty Inside Out Day -- the day to remember what really counts is who you are, not just what you look like


Anniversaries Today:

Mary, Queen of Scots, marries James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, 1567
Airmail service begins between NYC, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, 1918


Birthdays Today:

Jamie-Lynn Sigler, 1981
David Krumholtz, 1978
David Charvet, 1972
Emmit Smith, 1969
George Brett, 1953
Madeleine Albright, 1937
Trini Lopez, 1937
Anna Maria Alberghetti, 1936
Jasper Johns, 1930
Eddy Arnold, 1918
James Mason, 1909
Joseph Cotten, 1905
Abraham Zapruder, 1905
Katherine Anne Porter, 1890
Pierre Curie, 1859
L. Frank Baum, 1856


Today in History:

Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is sentenced to death, 1536
Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to see Cape Cod, 1602
Johannes Kepler confirms his discovery of the third law of planetary motion, 1618
James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun, 1718
The Seven Years' War begins when Great Britain declares war on France, 1756
Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5-6 meters, during one of the first attempted flights, 1793
George III survives two assassination attempts in one day, 1800
Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1817
Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse, 1836
Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand (The King and I), 1851
Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, 1858
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman's Suffrage Association, 1869
Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded, 1905
The United States Supreme Court  declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up, 1911
The Winnipeg General Strike begins; by 11:00 a.m., almost the whole working population of Winnipeg, Manitoba had walked off the job, 1919
Mickey Mouse premiered in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy, 1928
In an attempted Coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed, 1932
The Moscow Metro is opened to public, 1935
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3, 1958
Mercury-Atlas 9 astronaut L. Gordon Cooper becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, 1963
President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army Generals, 1970
Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million, the most expensive painting at the time, 1990
Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister, 1991
California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage, 2008
Jessica Watson, age 17, becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo, 2010