Equilibrium

We are adjusting to the new school stuff.

For my part, i am adjusting from a school where the staff was two people who cared passionately about education and students, to a public school staff that, for many of them, just have a job.  It shows in things like being stymied even in my attempts to pay school fees and buy uniforms,  If they don't feel like dealing with you and your money right now, they don't.

For Little Girl's part, she was a bit, shall we say, shell-shocked the first day.  Since then, she has figured out that the teachers like her.  She's polite, she sits and does her work, she speaks only when spoken to or called upon, and she's eager to learn.

She has made a couple of friends, but won't talk about that much.  She did say, "Great, my best friends are going to be my teachers!" in a laughing way.

When i asked, she said her Fine Arts teacher is "awesome," the Spanish teacher explains everything, and she's getting more comfortable with the layout and moving from class to class with so many other people.

So, how did i know for certain that things are getting better?  Well, she'd been a bit subdued for a day or so, and even felt nauseous after her first day.  It was getting better, i knew, the afternoon i walked from the kitchen to the pantry hall and stopped to mutter to myself, What did i come in here to do?

"Hold a potato for ransom!" she answered with a grin.  "Or maybe you wanted to take over the Empire State Building?  How about, start a line of designer handbags that bite their owners?  Or maybe you wanted to figure out how to commit a felony using only a light bulb!"

Yes, she's adjusting.


Today is:

Acton Fair -- Acton, ME, US (an old fashioned country fair plus midway, stage shows, and a great good time; through Sunday)

America's Cup Day -- the first America's Cup was won this date in 1851 by the yacht America

Be an Angel Day -- Sponsored by Angel Heights Healing Center, encouraging people to be a blessing and perform an act of service for someone

Eat a Peach Day

Feast of the Queenship of Mary & Immaculate Heart of Mary -- Catholic Christians

Flag Day -- Russia

Gai Jatra -- Kathmandu Valley, Nepal (cow festival, one of Nepal's most popular festivals with tourists)

Hoodie Hoo Day, Southern Hemisphere -- Wellcat Holidays says to go outside at noon and call "Hoodie Hoo" to chase away winter and call spring

National Spumoni Day (i don't think i've had really great spumoni since i went to Italy all those years ago -- nothing like getting things at the source.)

Rumpleskunkskin's Wedding Anniversary -- Fairy Calendar (Goblin celebration)

St. Symphorian's Day (Patron of children, students; Autun, France; against eye problems, syphilis)

Watermelon Festival -- Winterville, NC, US (sticky fun; through Saturday)

Zucchini Festival -- Obetz, OH, US (family fun and zucchini; through Sunday)


Anniversary Today:
Henry Leland founds the Cadillac Motor Company, 1902



Birthdays Today:

Tori Amos, 1963
Cindy Williams, 1947
Valerie Harper, 1940
Carl Yastrzemski, 1939
Norman Schwarzkopf, 1934
Ray Bradbury, 1920
John Lee Hooker, 1917
George Herriman, 1880
Dorothy Parker, 1893
Claude Debussy, 1862
Samuel Pierpont Langley, 1834
Virginia Clemm Poe, 1822
St. Anthony of Padua, 1195


Today in History:

St. Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, 565
The Battle of Bosworth Field, in which King Richard III is killed and his forces defeated by Henry VII, 1485
Madras, India (now called Chennai) is founded by the British East India company on land purchased from the local Nayak rulers, 1639
Jacob Barsimon, the first Jewish immigrant to what would become US territory, arrives in New Amsterdam/Manhattan, 1654
The Newport, RI newspaper, Mercury, becomes the first in the US to hire a female editor, Ann Franklin, 1762
Austria launches pilotless balloons against the Italian city of Venice, thus staging the first air raid in history, 1849
Gold discovered in Australia, 1851
12 nations sign the First Geneva Convention and the Red Cross is formed, 1864
William Shepphard patents the first liquid soap, 1885
Founding of the Cadillac Motor Company, 1902
President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first US chief executive to ride in an automobile, 1902
The first Victor Victrola is manufactured, 1906
The Mona Lisa is stolen, 1911 (recovered 2 years later)
Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis, 1950
Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogota, Colombia, becoming the first pope to visit Latin America, 1968
Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies, 1972
The first ring of Neptune is discovered, 1989
A version of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway, 2004
The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day, 2007