C for Coffee Chat: Crazy, Baby!

Rory Bore at Ink Interrupted hosts the Tuesday Coffee Chat, and this week she asks the question,  Foolish Me -- What's the silliest or craziest thing you've ever done? 






Crazy is, of course, in the eye of the beholder (or occasionally, the eye of the beer holder, but the crazy things people do when intoxicated is another discussion altogether).

When i think of my crazy, i think of a lot of things.

Perhaps it really was crazy that i went into the barrios in the Dominican Republic when i was 17 to give polio vaccines.

Devoting years of my life to bottle raising orphaned kittens is crazy.  You are up with them every 2 hours when they are little, and for the trouble you get messed on and flea bitten.  The ones that survive go on to destroy your house and then get adopted and break your heart because you have to let them go.  It's nuts.  Worth it, but nuts.

Certainly it was crazy to accept Farmer Pickles' invitation that time and go off on my first yearly sanity retreat.  She had never met any of us except on the chat forum, and she invited us to come visit her in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It was crazy that i set off in the Jalopy (she was much younger then) to go to San Antonio and meet Grace for the first time, and for us to continue to travel on to San Antonio together.  Grace knew i was okay by the time my family members had called me multiple times in the first few hours to complain about things like burning the fish sticks and arguing over whose turn it was to wash dishes, but still.  We are all friends now and don't know what we'd do without each other, but back then, it was a crazy thing to do.

Of course, the craziest thing i've ever done is go get hitched and have kids.  No way anyone can deny that's the purest craziness of all.  The cast of characters in my life because of marriage and having children wouldn't ever make it on TV because fiction has to be believable.  Some of what goes on in my children's friends lives is unbelievable.  If you have children in their late teens/early 20s, you've probably seen it first hand.

No matter how crazy things get, though, i wouldn't trade any of them for anything, because i may be crazy, but i'm not insane.



Today is:

Ballroom Dance Day -- dance with your sweetheart today in honor of the birth anniversary of Arthur Murray

Bonza Bottler Day™

Children's Day -- Taiwan

Cold Food Day -- China (especially celebrated in the Shanxi Province, a commemoration of Jie Zitui, a loyal servant; no fires are to be lit and all food is too be served cold)

Homogenized Milk Day -- a machine to homogenize milk was patented this day in 1892 by Auguste Gaulin

Hug a Newsman/Newswoman Day -- an internet holiday, and be careful, no more fiascos like the gropings in 2009, please, just a nice hug

Independence Day -- Senegal(1960)

International Carrot Day -- really! 

International Day for Mine Awareness & Assistance in Mine Action -- UN

Matsuyama Haru Matsuri -- Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan (Spring celebrations incorporating the Matsuyama Castle festival and the Dogo Hot Springs festival)

Megalesia, a/k/a Festival of Magna Mater -- Ancient Roman Calendar (great mother festival for Cybele; through the 9th)

National Cordon Bleu Day

National Equal Pay Day -- US (the date of how far into 2017 a US woman had to work to earn what a US man did in 2016) 

National Reading a Roadmap Day -- another internet holiday that some sites call "Learn to Read A Roadmap Day," but a good one to observe; you need to know how to read one when your GPS battery dies, after all

Ose Matsuri -- Ose Shrine, ShizouKa Prefecture, Japan (men dressed in women's clothes dance a lively jig on board a boat afloat in the harbour which is festooned with flags and streamers while taiko groups play drums on shore in this festival thought to date back to a wife wanting to protect her fisherman-husband by giving him a kimono)

Peace Day -- Angola

St. Benedict the African's Day (Patron of African missions; African-Americans; Palermo, Sicily, Italy)

St. Isidore of Seville's Day (Patron of computer technicians, computer users, computers, the Internet, schoolchildren, students)

Sun 'n Fun International Fly in & Expo -- Lakeland, Florida, US (preserving and enhancing the future of flight; through Sunday)

Swedish-American Friendship Day

Tell a Lie Day -- an internet generated holiday; the only day it is acceptable! make sure, after today, to clear it up, trust me

Victims of Violence Day -- anniversary of the assasination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Vitamin C Day -- the vitamin was isolated on this day in 1932 by C.C, King at the University of Pittsburgh

Walk Around Things Day -- fun to do, it makes people look at you funny

World Rat Day -- pet rat lovers everywhere, unite and introduce your friends to your pet rats

ZAB Death Anniversary -- Pakistan (38th anniversary)


Anniversary Today:

Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft Corporation, 1975


Birthdays Today:

David Blaine, 1973
Dave Mirra, 1972
Jill Scott, 1972
Barry Pepper, 1970
Nancy McKeon, 1966
Robert Downey, Jr., 1965
David Gavurin, 1963
Gary Moore, 1952
Christine Lahti, 1950
Craig T. Nelson, 1946
Kitty Kelley, 1942
Angelo Bartlett "Bart" Giamatti, 1938
Michael Parks, 1938
Anthony Perkins, 1932
Maya Angelou, 1928
Muddy Waters, 1915
Frances Langford, 1914
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, 1908
John Cameron Swayze, 1906
Arthur Murray, 1895
Isoroku Yamamoto, 1884
Linus Yale, Jr., 1821
Dorothea Dix, 1802


Today in History:

Francis Drake is knighted for completing a circumnavigation of the world, 1581
Sir Robert Walpole becomes First Lord of the Treasury of England, and is so influential in the Cabinet that he is considered the de facto first Prime Minister of England, 1721
Napoleon abdicates for the first time, 1814
Casparus van Wooden of Amsterdam patents chocolate milk powder, 1828
William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and the one with the shortest term served, 1841
Bryant's Minstrels debut the song "Dixie" in a blackface minstrel show, 1859
Susanna Medora Salter is elected the first US woman mayor, in Argonia, KS, 1887
Cecil Rhodes scholarship fund is established, 1902
An earthquake in India's Kangra Valley kills 20,000, destroys most of three cities, 1905
Vitamin C was first isolated by C.C. King at the University of Pittsburgh, 1932
Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO, 1949
Martin Luther King, Jr., is assasinated, 1968
Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart (the patient survived for 65 hours), 1969
The World Trade Center in NYC is dedicated, 1973
Bill Gates and Paul Allen form Microsoft, 1975
Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space, 1983
Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark found Netscape Communications Corporation under the name "Mosaic Communications Corporation", 1994
Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, 1996
The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War, 2002
15 British Royal Navy personnel held in Iran are released, 2007
The most distant supernova on record is found by the Hubble Space Telescope, 2013