Yesterday I celebrated something far more important than anything that appeared on the day’s calendar (well, Power Rangers Day is pretty special… but still…). It was our 21st wedding anniversary, and we spent most of the evening focused on that celebration, rather than try to sprinkle a heap of research and writing in before sundown. A drive-in movie and an evening in the arms of your favorite person outshines any National Day on the books. Does that epiphany get me out of doing the rest of this project? It could… but yet here I am, saddled with all of this:
Crackers Over The Keyboard Day
This celebration is meant to demonstrate that we, as participating humans, are willing to rebel against old stoic rules and embrace our wild sides. We’re told by parents, teachers, bosses, basic common sense that we shouldn’t eat crackers above the keyboard, yet here we are, living the X-TREME life, doing our best not to choke and sputter on all the adrenaline coursing through our inside places.
And I totally did it. I threw caution to a mild breeze and wrapped my arms around the societal structures that hold us just inches away from pure chaos. Thank you to Thomas and Ruth Roy, those weird and wonderful Pennsylvanians who have crafted a seemingly unending stream of strangeness which we have commemorated this year. Thank you for creating this gut connection to the sublime and the adventurous within us.
I should also note that Ritz crackers, while buttery and delicious, are also small enough to cram completely into one’s mouth, thus eliminating the danger of falling crumbs, assuming one has the ability to eat with one’s mouth shut. So the risk here was not quite as X-TREME as my all-caps, and replacing an ‘E’ with a misplaced hyphen might suggest. But forget all that. I grabbed this celebration by the pubes and shook it violently until it could be shaken no more.
This is life on the edge of adventure, folks. A few more commemorations like this and we may not live to see 2021.
Race Your Mouse Around The Icons Day
This one sounded like a Thomas & Ruth Roy celebration, but it’s not. In fact, we don’t know who came up with this silly idea. When you’re bored, waiting for something to load, the idea is to scoot your cursor around your icons as a time-waster. I mean… I guess that’s a thing people could do. Me, I tend to just wait. Or I’ll pick up my phone and find a momentary distraction. Even more so than communication our phones are handy for providing distraction.
Also, I tend to clean up my desktop as much as possible. I have a folder of great pictures that get cycled through as a ‘slide show’ for my desktop backgrounds, and I’d rather look at the skyline of New York or a great screenshot from Goodfellas than at a reminder that I haven’t properly filed that PDF report I worked on in February into wherever it should go on my hard drive. So ‘racing around the icons’ didn’t take me very long.
But if you’re looking for something to do, this definitely qualifies as… something.
Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day
I was first exposed to the term ‘Rainbow Bridge’ via the cover of a Jimi Hendrix album. I later learned the concept can also be based on a series of poems from the 80s and 90s, which assert that pets cross over this mythical bridge to await our own journeys into the afterlife, whereupon they’ll be waiting for us. To be honest, if I was to believe in only one life-after-death scenario, this would be it. I don’t even need to see my dearly departed loved ones; just give me an eternity with any of the four dogs pictured above.
We have received condolence cards from our vet every time we’ve lost a dog, and they seem to consistently cite this. We don’t actually need a day to be reminded to think of our departed canines – they are in our thoughts regularly.
But we’ll indulge. Pictured above are Rufus, our one and only male, whose habit of peeing on things made us yearn to only ever own female dogs going forward. But even though he possessed a fantastical odour, he was a brilliant companion. He defied all bulldog stereotypes and walked with high energy for long, extended trips with me. Then there’s Yoko, who remains the gold standard for all puppies we have owned since. She was perfect and compassionate – a therapy dog with no formal training. Becky was a feisty and weird dog, so full of quirks it would take a book to document them all. And Bethany was very much her mother’s daughter: a true companion with nothing but love for her humans.
I’d damn well better seem them again someday. They are all deeply missed.
National Whiskey Sour Day
Way back in 1870 the earliest known mention of a whiskey sour appeared in print, in some rural Wisconsin newspaper. It was suggested by a Peruvian news source that the drink had been invented in 1872 by one Elliot Stubb, a man more famous for having created the Pisco Sour. Pisco is a high-proof grape-based liquor that is much more popular in South America than here. The Pisco Sour is very much the same thing as a whiskey sour, except with a different booze source and the addition of an egg white.
If the drink was discussed in print in 1870, of course the Peruvian source would be wrong. It could be an error of dates, or perhaps they made it all up from nothing. Another possibility steers us right back to yesterday’s banana split: maybe it was conceived by two people in two different parts of the planet. After all, it’s not a complicated drink. Mix some bourbon with some lemon juice and simple syrup (which is just sugar and water), shake it up with some ice and serve it.
This one was a bit of a struggle to see through. The day actually landed on Tuesday, but I forgot to make one Tuesday night. Wednesday I was not in the mood for alcohol. Thursday I made the simple syrup, then left it on the counter to cool, which is where Liberty found it and drank it all down. Finally, I made my first whiskey sour last night, in our on-going effort to not skip any alcohol-related days. It was delicious, with just the right little snap of sour to complement the flavours of the bourbon. I suspect it won’t be my last.
I like a day that ends with a whole lotta yum. This might be my new favourite drink.
National Red Wine Day
I have written so much on here about the history and development of wine, I feel I can contribute no more. We – well, I drank some red wine last night after the movie and it was fantastic. I’ve been enjoying the stuff since I was eight days old. It was my first alcoholic love. And that’s all there is to say. On to the next day!
Today is Saturday so that usually means a bunch of celebrations. Let’s see what we’ll get into:
- National Chop Suey Day. Not even close to our favourite, so we’ll probably skip this one.
- National Lemon Juice Day. I guess this means I’m making another whiskey sour!
- More Herbs Less Salt Day. I can get behind this, though I’m not exactly a mass consumer of extra salt.
- According To Hoyle Day. This is actually about the guy who wrote the rules to whist and other card games. So I guess we play a card game.
- Independent Bookstore Day. Might be time to make a trip.
- Play Music On The Porch Day. My auntie will be jamming with her ukulele on her porch. Maybe I’ll drag out my bongos to sit on mine.
- Speak Kind Words Saturday. Sounds pleasant.
celebrate366.com 