An Answered Prayer

"Hi, mom!"  #1 Son was chipper for having just come in from work, so i thought something might be up.

How's everything? i asked, trying not to seem to excited.

"Oh, it's great!  Guess what!  I don't work for the caterers any more, I work for the Association!"

There it was, news i'd been praying for.

That's wonderful! i said with genuine delight.

He's been working long hours for low pay, and i knew, from behind the scenes, that a job had come open at the Association that he could handle with ease.  It had been in my prayers that The Big Boss would think to hire him.

"Yeah, you know how I really take special care of The Big Boss and he's always so impressed with how I never stop moving and I really work hard?"

Yes, i know, i said.  Inside, i'm thinking, yes, you work like your dad, he never stops moving at work, is always busy and finds stuff to do if he's done with what he's been given.

"And, I don't know if you heard, but Randy got fired last week because he offended a big client, and they've been thinking about who to hire to do his job."

Yes, i thought to myself, i knew, and i wanted that job for you, it's a huge step up, but i didn't say anything, i just kept grinning.

"Well, today, The Big Boss walked past me as I was serving lunch buffet and he said, 'Hey, how would you like to have a real job?' and I said, 'Yes, I would love to have a real job!' and he told me to go see Mr. Vice-President and tell him I was hired and I start on Monday!"

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! i almost yelled.

"And right now I need to go get measured for a jacket, because Mr. Vice-President told me to go get measured and they will buy me the jacket I need, and Mr. Tim told me to go get two pair of black work pants and they will pay me back for them, and they will give me the logo pullovers, so they are going to provide my work wardrobe!

"I'll be working all the events, so for this week, I get to train my replacement for the caterer for the lunch buffet, and next Monday I'll go in and they will show me where all the stuff is that I need to know.  I mean, I worked with the caterer at events with Randy running the building, so I know what he did, but I just don't know the location of everything he had to control.

"And you know what?  I'll not only be working better hours for triple the pay, I can have a schedule where I can go back to school now!"

It's all i hoped for, and i know he can do the work and do it well.  It's an answered prayer.


Today is

Asatru Alliance Founding Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan

Birthday of José Gervasio Artigas / "Never Again" Day -- Uruguay (Dia del Nunca Mas)

Butterfly Day -- an ecard holiday; if you know someone who loves butterflies, send an ecard, let them know you are thinking of them

Corpus Christi -- Catholic Christian

Czech Days -- Tabor, SD, US (celebrating foods and traditions of the Czech people who settled this area; through Saturday)

Day of the Independent Hungary -- Hungary (a memorial day for those martyred in 1958, and for the end of Soviet occupation)

Festival for Minerva -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of arts, crafts, skill, war, and intelligence)

Festival of the Coming Ice Age -- can't find out anything about this one, but it sounds hilarious

Fort Union Trading Post Rendezvous -- Williston, ND, US (re-creation of the fur trade era; through Sunday)

Garfield the Cat Day (his birthday/comic strip premiere)

Juneteenth -- US, celebrates the news of freedom on the day it came to slaves on Galveston Island, Texas

Kiamichi Owa-Chito Festival of the Forest -- Beaver's Bend State Park, Broken Bow, OK, US (celebration of Native American culture; through Saturday)

Labour Day -- Trinidad and Tobago

National Dump the Pump Day -- The American Public Transportation Association encourages you to consider public transportation as a way to cut down on high gasoline prices

National Martini Day -- some sites specify a dry martini

New Church Day -- Swedenborgian Christian

Recess at Work Day -- engage in productive play!

Rusalka's Week begins -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (week long festival to honor the divinity of rivers)

Sam Steele Days -- Cranbrook, BC, Canada (fun for all, celebrating the life and legend of Sam Steele of the North-West Mounted Police in the 1880's; through Sunday)

Shakespeare on the Green -- University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, US (nonprofit professional productions of the Bard's works, including preshow seminars, workshops, period music and entertainment; this year's performances will be Titus Andronicus and Twelfth Night, recurring daily through July 6)

Show-Me State Games -- Colombia, MO, US (Olympic-style sports festival for all ages and skill levels, to encourage people to develop their physical and competitive abilities to the height of their potential through participation in fitness activities; through Sunday, and again July 18-20 and 25-27)

Spooky Stories Appreciation Night -- because someone thought it would be a good night to tell a few scary tales

St. Boniface of Querfurt's Day (Patron of Prussia)

St. Jude's Day (Patron of desperate situations, forgotten/impossible/lost causes, hospitals, hospital workers; Saint Petersburg, FL, US)

Tiger-Get-By's Second Birthday -- Fairy Calendar

World Sauntering Day -- origin unknown, but perhaps begun at Grand Hotel (Mackinac Island) in Michigan during the 1970s as a response by W.T.Rabe to a growing movement toward the recreation of jogging and the idea was to encourage people to slow down and appreciate the world around them; the rules are to observe the lost art of Victorian sauntering, discouraging jogging, lollygagging, sashaying, fast walking, and trotting, but no word on meandering that i can find!

World Sickle Cell Day


Anniversaries Today:

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, marries Sophie Rhys-Jones, 1999


Birthdays Today:

Zoe Saldana, 1978
Poppy Montgomery, 1972
Mia Sara, 1967
Andy Lauer, 1965
Aung San Suu Kyi, 1965
Paula Abdul, 1962
Kathleen Turner, 1954
Ann Wilson, 1951
Phylicia Rashad, 1948
Salman Rushdie, 1947
Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane, 1942
Gena Rowlands, 1930
Louis Jourdan, 1919
Pauline Kael, 1919
Pat Buttram, 1915
Abe Fortas, 1910
Earl W. Bascom, 1906
Lou Gehrig, 1903
Guy Lombardo, 1902
Moe Howard, 1897
Wallis Simpson, 1896
Elbert Green Hubbard, 1856
Charles H. Spurgeon, 1834
Blaise Paschal, 1623
King James I of England and VI of Scotland, 1566


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Batman Returns(Film), 1992
"The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"(Musical), 1978
"The Rocky Horror Show"(Musical), 1973
"Devil May Hare"(Cartoon short, Tazmanian Devil's premier), 1954
"I've Got a Secret"(TV), 1952
"Moon Mullins"(Comic strip), 1923


Today in History:

King Louis IX of France orders all Jews  found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres  of silver, 1269
The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven, 1306
English colonists leave Roanoke Island, N.C., after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America, 1586
Emanuel Swedenborg reports the completion of the Second Coming of Christ in his work True Christian Religion, 1770
Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 1816
The first officially recorded, organized baseball match was played under Alexander Joy Cartwright's rules on Hoboken's Elysian Fields (Hoboken, New Jersey)with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1; Cartwright umpired, 1846
Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom; the anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 35 other states as Juneteenth, 1865
Maximilian I of the Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro, 1867
After all of the Southern States are formally readmitted to the United States, the Confederate States of America ceases to exist, 1870
The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins, 1875
The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington, 1910
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York, 1953
Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom, 1961
In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University in Beirut, is kidnapped, 1982
Norway ratifies the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of 1989, 1990
Prime ministers of several northern European nations participate in a ceremonial "laying of the first stone" at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway, 2006