Buddies Share a Window View (Wordless Wednesday) and She Knew (Words for Wednesday)

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, i am providing the prompts.  You can write your story on your blog and leave a link in the comments here, or write your story in the comments, your choice.

Pick words from one list, or both, use them all, or use none.  The whole point is to get us writing, so please have fun with it!

This week's prompts are:

genuine

dominate

moving

gold

embark

classroom

and/or

bleed

absent

separate

affair

steep

beginning

Taking a deep breath, Sam entered the CLASSROOM and set her armful of books on the desk.  She stopped for a look around and noticed that the walls were painted an awful shade that seemed to DOMINATE the room, giving it a depressing feeling.  She'd have to change that from the BEGINNING, and she knew it wouldn't be easy to cheer this place up.

"Go into anything except being a teacher!" her teacher father had said.  Her mother, also a teacher, hadn't said anything, but Sam knew she had agreed.  Both taught for many years and her dad had moved into administration, her mother leaving eventually to take a job editing books for a publisher.  Both had battle scars from their years in the classrooms.  As much as they knew teachers were needed, they'd also known it wasn't easy and did not pay nearly as well as many other careers.

Sam had heeded the advice and tried journalism, with some success.  The problem was, she had the gift, the GENUINE love of imparting knowledge.  She'd paid a STEEP price to go back to school and get her teacher's certification.

"You're MOVING in the wrong direction!" her father had said.

"I did not EMBARK on this path lightly, just like you didn't!" she'd shot back.  "You wanted to make a difference, and so do I.  I'm not looking for a GOLD star from you, but some understanding would be appreciated."

Her father had sighed at that point and said, "You're right.  The problem is, teachers BLEED and no one realizes how much but other teachers.  You cry over the kid who showed such promise, then starts being ABSENT all the time because he got in with the druggies.  You can't SEPARATE how you think of yourself from what your students' test scores are.  If you're married, the work is more like an AFFAIR than just work, it has your heart and your gut.  I just wanted to save you the heartaches."

"If you can't have the joys without the heartaches, then I'll take both," she'd answered.

"Yes, I know you will.  And your mother and I will support you, and listen, and give what help and advice we can.  If you are determined to try, we both know you will make a great teacher."

Sam turned to head back to her car for another armload of supplies.  She knew it wouldn't be easy.  She knew she'd done the right thing.

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Today is:

Balloons Around the World -- balloon artists around the world are encouraged to donate an hour or more to a charity of their choice in their community, entertaining children everywhere with balloon sculpture

Bathtub Day -- can't confirm this one, but it's as good a day as any to be glad you have one!

BOL Foundation Day -- Laos

Change a Light Day -- US (was originally sponsored by EnergyStar, promoting energy saving light bulbs; although they don't seem to be running this particular campaign any more, it's a great idea to switch to the highest efficiency bulbs you can)     

Feast Day of Ma'at -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of the Deerk Toes -- Fairy Calendar (celebrating the toes on a fairy's "deerk", for which there is no human equivalent)

If At First You Don't Succeed Day -- in honor of Frank Sinatra, whose CBS-TV musical variety show debuted on this day in 1950; it and the other two shows that followed didn't succeed, but he never gave up and had a great carreer

Lepanto Day -- Greece

Nagasaki Kunchi -- Nagasaki, Japan (harvest festival, through the 9th)

National Flower Day -- US (anniversary of President Reagan signing the bill, in 1986, that made the rose the US National Flower)

National Frappe Day

Nones of October -- Ancient Roman Calendar; other observances

     Festival of Juno Cutitis and Jupiter Fulgor

     Victoria, Lady of Victories Day a/k/a Pallas Athena -- also celebrated by the Ancient Greeks

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary -- Catholic Christian

Semana Morazánica, una Fiestas Patrias -- Honduras (through Saturday)

St. Justina of Padua's Day (Patron of Padua, Italy; Santa Giustina, Italy)

Try To Start An Argument Over Which Is the Best Muppet Day -- Kermit, hands down (argue below, if you wish)(Possibly started by the International Association of People without a Life)

You Matter To Me Day -- because the phrase "you matter to me" can make a profound difference in someone's life    

Anniversaries Today:

Larry King married Julie Alexander, 1989

Dow Jones makes the first report, in the Wall Street Journal, of an average of the prices of 12 industrial stocks, 1896

Birthdays Today:

Toni Braxton, 1967

Simon Cowell, 1959

Michael W. Smith, 1957

Yo-Yo Ma, 1955

Vladimir Putin, 1952

John Cougar Mellencamp, 1951

Joy Behar, 1943

Charles Dutoit, 1936

Thomas Keneally, 1935

Amiri Baraka, 1934

Bishop Desmond Tutu, 1931

Al Martino, 1927

R. D. Laing, 1927

June Allyson, 1917

Vaughn Monroe, 1911

Andy Devine, 1905

Niels Bohr, 1885

Thomas J. Wise, 1859

James Whitcomb Riley, 1849

Caesar Rodney, 1728(O.S. date)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Independent(Newspaper, first issue), 1986

"Cats"(Musical), 1982

"Route 66"(TV), 1960

"Your Hit Parade"(TV), 1950

"One Touch of Venus"(Musical), 1943

"Eve of St. Mark"(Play), 1942

Today in History:

The epoch of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar), BC3761

The first public burning of books in Louvain, Netherlands, 1520

Ralph Wedgewood patents carbon paper in London, 1806

The first chartered railway in the US, the Granite Railway, begins operations, 1826

Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba, 1886

Henry Ford institutes the moving assembly line, 1913

Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland college in the infamous 222-0 football game, 1916

160 consecutive days of 100*F+ temperatures begin at Marble Bar, Australia, 1924

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem "Howl" for the first time at a poetry reading in San Francisco, 1955

U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits first ever photographs of the far side of the moon, 1959

Nigeria joins the United Nations, 1960

Oman joins the United Nations, 1971

Cats opens on Broadway and begins a run of nearly 18 years, 1982 

The Great Flood of 1993 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, 1993

Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten, 1998

The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins, 2001

A Southampton University research fellow discovers a long lost Antonio Vivaldi flute concerto at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh, 2010

Scientists Stefan Hell of Germany and Eric Betzig and William Moerner of the U.S. share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing 'super-resolved fluorescence microscopy'; the technology can be used to observe molecular activity in living cells, 2014

Jodie Whittaker debuts in her first full episode as the 13th and first female Doctor Who on BBC television, 2018