Six Sentence Story: Discovering the Library

As she and her parents approached the entrance doors, she was so excitedly nervous she didn't know how she could stand it.  Yes, they had a so-called library at school, but it was just a room with a few bookshelves, and she had already read through most of them, as well as read every book at home a dozen times over, and was ready for new horizons and bigger challenges.

Once inside, her eyes almost bugged out of her head as she stared entranced at the stacks and stacks of books, in what looked from there like room after room that went on forever.  She was so distracted with craning her neck to see everything she hardly heard the conversation between the librarian and her parents...yes, she's old enough for her own card...she can get books from either the children's or young teen area...she may take as many as 10 at a time, for up to 3 weeks....

She signed her name in a daze and was let loose in the area where the children's books ended and the young teen books started, and she hardly knew where to begin.  Then she stepped into that new world and started exploring.

Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue word is Entrance.

Today is:

Abu Simbel Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (along with Feb. 22, the day when the sunlight fell perfectly on the statues of Ramses, Ra, and Amun at the temple complex)

Caps Lock Day -- celebrating life in screaming CAPITALS (i'd include a link to the promo site, but it's rather annoying)

Clean Up the Earth Day -- begun because having only one Earth Day a year doesn't give enough emphasis to the amount of work that needs to be done

Color Day -- a day to consider how color affects your life, health, and world

Dashain Festival -- Hindu (also called Dussehra, Dashera, Phulpati/Fulpaati, or Navratri, a celebration of victory of Lord Rama over evil; official government holidays for this multi-day festival vary throughout India, Nepal, Bhutan, and other countries with large populations of Hindus)

Eat a Pretzel Day -- unclaimed sponsorship; does anyone else suspect that pretzel makers know how to spread stuff around the internet, too?

French Food Festival -- LaRose, LA, US (local specialties, dancing, music, and fun; through Sunday)

Great Pumpkin Carve -- Chadds Ford Historical Society, Chadds Ford, PA, US (carving pumpkins that weigh about 150lbs or more each; through Saturday)

International Stuttering Awareness Day -- information here 

Jidai Matsuri -- Kyoto, Japan (Festival of the Eras or Festival of the Ages)

National Knee Day -- take care of your knees, and they will take care of you!

National Nut Day -- UK (also now celebrated around the world) (launched by Liberation Foods CIC, a fair trade nut company, urging us to celebrate fairly traded nuts and swap out a nut based burger for a meat based meal, at least for today)
 
Navaratri Dusserha/Dasain/Dashain/Dasara -- Hindu (Festival of Dirva, wife of Shiva, and a time to go back home and reconnect with family, especially in Nepal and parts of India; through the 13th; local dates and official government days off will vary)

Seeking of King Look Under Your Mattress -- Fairy Calendar

Smart is Cool Day -- and i don't know who started this one, but i'd say someone tired of being made fun of for being a bookworm

St. Mary Salome's Day (Patron of Veroli, Italy)


Anniversaries Today:

Toastmasters International founded, 1924
The first Metropolitan Opera House in NYC opens, performing Faust, 1883


Birthdays Today:

Carlos Mencia, 1967
Valeria Golino, 1966
Brian Boitano, 1963
Jeff Goldblum, 1952
Deepak Chopra, 1946
Catherine Deveuve, 1943
Jan De Bont, 1943
Annette Funicello, 1942
Tony Roberts, 1939
Derek Jacobi, 1938
Christopher Lloyd, 1938
Timothy Leary, 1920
Joan Fontaine, 1917
Robert Capa, 1913
Curly Howard, 1903
George Beadle, 1903
N. C. Wyeth, 1882
Sarah Bernhardt, 1844
Franz Liszt, 1811


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Me and Bessie"(Musical), 1975
"Take Me Along"(Musical), 1959
"The Far Off Hills"(Play), 1928


Today in History:

The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire, 362
Emperor Kanmu relocates Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto), 794
Battle of the Southern Fujian Sea, Ming Dynasty wins a victory against the Dutch East India Company, 1633
Princeton University is chartered, 1746
Andre-Jacques Trim becomes the first sky diver, parachuting over Paris from a balloon, 1797
Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas, 1836
First telegraph line linking US east and west coasts of the US is completed, 1861
First concert performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1881
World's first automobile dealer opens in London, 1897
President Hoover gives the "American system of rugged individualism" speech, 1928
The FBI ambushes Pretty Boy Floyd, 1934
First commercial flight from the mainland to Hawai'i, 1936
Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor, 1964
A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada, 1964
The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus, 1975Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs, although the dye is still used in Canada, 1976
Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms, 2005
A Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama, 2006
India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, 2008
North Korea gives the US permission to search for the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War, 2011