Saturday, April 30, 2016

A to Z: Zillions

Zillions may be a made up number, but anyone who loves a child knows there's no amount of money you would trade for that little person, even when she becomes a big person.

Little Girl is 18 today.  While she's not so little as when i first started calling my daughters "Little Girl" and "Bigger Girl" (as the character Jumba calls Lilo and Nani in the Lilo and Stitch movie), i still use the names because i think it's as fun to call them that today as it was all those years ago.

She has prom tonight, and picked out a beautiful dress.  To me, though, she still looks like a Little Girl playing dress up.

Little Girl only has another week-and-a-half of school, and then a break before she leaves for boot camp.  She will be leaving the day before her graduation ceremony, because if she waited for the next training date she wouldn't be able to go to college next January, which is her goal.  As it stands, she will have boot camp/basic training, then go on to become a certified EMT, then come home in time for Christmas and to enroll in nursing school in January.  As she says, this way she's only one semester behind everyone else in college, not a whole year behind.

Yes, those are grown-up plans, and she's a grown-up girl who loves the training she's receiving in the National Guard and the fact that she can earn her own college tuition this way.

Grown up as she is, she's still a Little Girl to me, and always will be.



Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Georgia

Birthday of the King / Konungens födelsedag -- Sweden (HM King Carl XVI Gustav; an official flag day)

Bob Wills Day -- Turkey, TX, US (celebrating Western Swing music and its king; through Sunday)

Bugs Bunny Day -- while some consider his debut to have been in "A Wild Hare," released in July two years later, other say that Bugs was the rabbit in "Porky's Hare Hunt," relased this date in 1938

Camarón Day -- French Foreign Legion

Carnival Day -- Sint Maarten

Consumer Protection Day -- Thailand

Díá De Los Niños/Díá De Los Libros -- American Library Association (Children Day/Book Day; a celebration that emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds) 

Dia de Rincon -- Rincon, Bonaire

Eeyore's Birthday -- Austin, TX, US (Eeyore never need feel forgotten again; Austin celebrates his birthday as a fundraiser for local charities, with fun for all)

El Dia del Nino -- Mexico (Children's Day)

Fairy Queen's Birthday -- Fairy Calendar

Faeriae Latinae -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Feast of the Latin League, a festival to honor Jupiter)

Foxfield Races -- Charlottesville, VA, US (annual steeplechase)

Galveston Historic Homes Tour -- Galveston, TX, US (Galveston Island’s great treasures of Victorian and post-Victorian architecture that are privately owned are opened for tours this weekend and next)

Healthy Kids Day® -- YMCA

International Jazz Day -- UNESCO (originated with the New Jersey Jazz Society and sanctioned by the United Nations Jazz Society, the American Federation of Jazz Societies, and the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society; this year's International Jazz Day Global Concert 2016 will be held at the White House in Washington, D.C., and streamed live, with info here)

International Tabletop Day -- encouraging people to play games on a table, not online, face to face

Liberation/Reunification Day -- Vietnam

May Eve -- eve of the first day of summer in many traditions, including
     Beltane/Samhain Eve -- Pagan traditions
     Carodejnice -- Czech Republic; Slovakia
     Maitag Vorabend -- Switzerland
     Mange les Morts -- Haiti (festival of the dead)
     Salus -- Portugal; Spain (festival of the dead)
     Valborgsmässoafton -- Sweden
     Walpurgis Night -- Ancient Celtic/Nordic Calendars

Mr. Potato Head Day -- the classic toy went on sale this day in 1952, and you used your own potato

National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day -- US (can't find a sponsoring organization, but it's not a bad idea)

National Go Birding Day -- US (but feel free to participate wherever you are, birding is fun!)

National Herb Day -- different from the HerbDay in May, and unsponsored

National Honesty Day -- including Honest Abe Awards (Abies) and dishonorable mentions for those who have been particularly publicly egregious; celebrated today because we began the month with April Fooling and lies, so today is to celebrate the opposite*

National Raisin Day

National Rebuilding Day -- US (270,000 volunteers help rebuild and repair homes for the elderly and disabled)

National Sense of Smell Day -- US (sponsored by the Sense of Smell Institute, encouraging museums and science centers to focus on how the sense of smell plays an important role in daily life and how it interacts with other senses)

Penguin Day -- different sponsor from World Penguin Day, but you can't have enough days dedicated to these fun critters, can you?

Pesach/Passover -- Judaism (ends at sundown tonight)

Save the Frogs Day -- Save The Frogs Day is the world's largest day of amphibian education and conservation action

Southern Maryland Celtic Festival & Highland Games -- St. Leonard, MD, US (competitions in fiddling, bagpipe, Celtic harp, and dancing, heptathlon, Celtic marketplace and foods, parade of clans, and more)

St. Adjutor of Vernon's Day (Patron of drowning victims, sailors, swimmers, yachtsmen; Vernon, France; against drowning)

St. James the Great's Day -- Orthodox Christian

Taro Festival -- East Maui, Hawaii, US (celebration of Hawai'an culture; through tomorrow)

Teacher's Day -- Paraguay

Towsontown Spring Festival -- Towson, MD, US (four stages of continual entertainment, food, art and photography exhibit, and more; through tomorrow)

World Healing Day / World Tai Chi and Qigong Day

World Veterinary Day -- World Veterinary Association 

*to nominate someone for an Abie or a dishonorable mention, contact M. Hirsh Goldberg, founder and author of The Book of Lies, mhgoldberg@comcast.net)


Anniversaries Today:

Pele marries Assiria Seixas Lemos, 1994
The Organization of American States is founded, 1948
Louisiana becomes the 18th US state, 1812


Birthdays Today:

Dianna Agron, 1986
Kirsten Dunst, 1982
Johnny Galecki, 1975
Jeff Timmons, 1973
Carolyn Dawn Johnson, 1971
Adrian Pasdar, 1965
Michael Waltrip, 1963
Isiah Thomas, 1961
Stuart Mathis, 1960
Stephen Harper, 1959
Jane Campion, 1954
Perry King, 1948
Carl XVI Gustav, King of Sweden, 1946
Michael J. Smith, 1945
Jill Clayburgh, 1944
Burt Young, 1940
Gary Collins, 1938
Willie Nelson, 1933
Cloris Leachman, 1926
Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, 1909
Eve Arden, 1908
Ellis Wilson, 1899
Louise Dilworth Beatty Homer, 1871


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Barnum"(Musical), 1980
"The Dresser"(Play), 1980
"Inside U.S.A."(Musical revue), 1948
"Arthur Godfrey Time"(Radio), 1945
"Pelleas et Melisande"(Opera), 1902
"Dmitri Donskoi"(Opera), 1852
"Love for Love"(Play), 1695


Today in History:

Supernova  SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appears in the constellation  Lupus, 1006
Orbital calculations suggest that on this day, Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503, 1483
Columbus is given a royal commission to equip his fleet, 1492
On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States, 1789
The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France, 1803
Nicaragua  declares independence from the Central American Federation, 1838
Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, while trying to
make up time on the Cannonball Express, 1900
Honolulu, Hawaii becomes an independent city, 1907
Peru becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty, 1920
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, 1927
The animated cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit (a prototype of Bugs Bunny, 1938
In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established, 1948
The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom, 1963
Communist forces gain control of Saigon and the Vietnam War formally ends, 1975
Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, 1980
CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free, 1993
Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, 1999
Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and one of his sisters, 2008
Chrysler automobile company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, 2009
Hailed as the largest World's Fair in history, Expo 2010 opens in Shanghai, China, 2010
Born without a trachea, a 2-year-old Korean-Canadian child is the youngest patient in history to receive a bioengineered organ made from stem cells; she received the transplanted organ at the Children's Hospital of Illinois, 2013

11 comments:

  1. congrats, great job on the challenge

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope your daughter enjoys her prom. Thank you for the wonderful posts throughout the month. I've really enjoyed popping by! Thanks for your support of my blog too. Much appreciated. Enjoy the coming month and hope to read more of your news soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like the way you refer to your daughters. We still use a baby name for our son even though he towers over us.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ♪♪Happy Birthday to you,♪♪
    ♪♪Happy Birthday to you,♪♪
    ♪♪Happy Birthday Dear Little Girl,♪♪
    ♪♪Happy Birthday to you.♪♪

    Sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders. I wonder where she got that. Oh wait, I already know.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy Birthday to no-longer-so-Little Girl! I'll bet she'll be a wonderful EMT and an even more wonderful nurse.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Big plans for a little girl! Sounds like "Extra Special" girl to me.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hurrah for your daughter! I am impressed!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy birthday to Little Girl. She certainly seems to be a daughter to be proud of which doesn't surprise me at all. The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.

    ReplyDelete
  9. awww! first, happy big-girl birthday to your little girl! second, wish she could walk for graduation, but she has big goals and a big future ahead. good for her!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think Dr. Evil used the word zillion so I'm pretty sure it's kosher. And a great big Happy Birthday to the little one!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is an awesome "Little Girl" who knows where she's going and how to get there. Great plans for her future, and I can't think of any nicer way to celebrate your birthday than at the prom!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for meandering by and letting me know you were here!
Comments on posts more than a week old are moderated.
If Blogger puts your comment in "spam jail," i'll try to get it hauled out by day's end.