Bunches of Thanks

Today is World Gratitude Day! Aw snap, ya'll! Stuff just got real up in here. You weren't expecting to have to be thankful for anything until Thanksgiving? Well, you best start thinking of something that's happening right now to be thankful for! It's like when a teacher calls on you when you didn't have your hand raised and you freak out because you didn't prepare? Well, that's what I'm doing to you. Here's a quick list of things that I'm quite thankful for so far this year.

1) My recent trip to the UK with Lift Ministries. It was my third time over there and it gets more intense and awesome every year. I can't wait to see what happens next year!

2) My job. It took forever to get one, but I finally did. Also, it's at a bakery and everything is delicious there. You just can't say that about working many places.

3) My friend Lori, who thought that my holiday celebrating was neat, and has even started a blog of her own describing her celebrations and/or thoughts on the holidays. She even found some holidays that were different than mine (My list... may or may not be outdated... by two years... almost three), so you'll get twice the holidays for half the money! Which... is still $0.00, because they are free blogs... OFF TRACK! I was trying to say that her involvement and interest in this has re-kindled my excited-ness in my own blog! (I was getting lackadaisical lately, and also mad at the food holidays for being so... prevalent.) I will do my best to not do that now!

4) Last but not definitely not least, I'm thankful for my loyal viewers. All 8-27 daily viewers (Yeah I'm watchin' you) that read this blog. It may sound small, but that's a good room-full of people. And they aren't always the same ones either! I get people I know coming up to me asking about what holiday it is, and it's all fun times! Without your viewership, I would basically be talking to myself. Which, while sometimes therapeutic, becomes creepy if done too often. So thank you!

Today is also the International Banana Festival Day! I hear tell that this is a Kentucky thing, but that doesn't make sense to me because of the word 'International' in the title. However, from the pictures I've seen, it involves eating a lot of bananas. I am totally down for that. I've eaten banana bread, banana pudding, a banana and peanut butter sandwich, and even a banana smoothie! Feel free to experiment with banana recipes today, too. And just so you don't forget today is banana day, it helps to have this stuck in your head forever.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Catching Up

I'm back at home and now that I've caught up on sleep I  can spend as much time and bandwidth as I want telling you about the holidays for the past three days!

August 14th was National Creamsicle Day! The closest I got to celebrating that day was eating ice cream, because finding a creamsicle while staying in a hotel is a lot harder than it sounds.

August 15th was National Relaxation Day! I celebrated this day every spare second I could. Which turned out to be a lot since I had an international flight with an 8-hour layover.

August 15th was also National Failures Day! I also celebrated this day in the form of failing to sleep very much at all. I can't express how happy I am that I failed, but the planes and pilots succeeded.

Finally, today is Bratwurst Festival! I have to say that I'm mildly disappointed in the fact that the day I come back is a food holiday since those are so simple to talk about and celebrate. I will say that a fairly recent story I have about hot dog related things is that even though I spent eight hours in Chicago yesterday, I didn't have a chicago style dog. Why? Because no hot dog is worth eight dollars. Maybe I'll try and get one when I'm not in an airport where the prices are set almost as high as the flight paths.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Seeing Double

Today is Twins' Day Festival! This is an actual festival that takes place in Ohio to celebrate twins! Twins are some of the most interesting duos that you will find, because they have very unique interactions with each other. If you are a twin today, then celebrate with your twin. Especially if you're in Ohio! If you aren't a twin, find someone who you share almost everything in common with and spend the day with them being 'twins for a day'. Or something. Dress alike, but not in a creepy way. There is matching and then there is just a whole other level that some people take it to that makes you wonder how they even found those types of clothes in matching patterns.

Anyway, I'm flying out to Wales tomorrow, so I don't really know how I'm going to do my blogging over there, seeing as I will be very busy and have very limited connection to the internet. So here's the deal. I will try as hard as my mind will allow to remember to update daily as per usual, but I'm not going to let this become so prevalent in my thoughts that it distracts me from what I should be paying attention to. IF I miss a day, I will tell you what that holiday was once I get a chance to update. Other than that, I'm sorry if you are for some reason addicted to reading what I think about holidays you've never heard of and I cause some major withdrawal type symptoms. I promise once I get back I'll put you back on the daily dosage.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Summer is Hot?

Today is The Festival of Popular Delusions Day! At least three people on the internet say that today was made by the Germany one day before one year after D-Day. It was meant to basically say "Yeah, world domination was a bit of a delusion wasn't it?" However, this day can be celebrated today by either being delusional, or realizing what the popular delusion is and going against it. A perfect example was brought to my attention this morning (how fortuitous!) when my dad and his friend were saying things to the effect of "Wow it is getting hot?" and "How is is getting so hot?". It then occurred to me that a VERY popular delusion for the people around my area of living (which if you've being keeping tabs, you might be triangulating my position according to things i've said about where i live in previous posts) is simply: Weather.

Now, my homeland area is not known for being the most consistent in short term bursts, but in the long run, it is oh so very predictable. Yet the people always seem surprised by summer heat of winter chill (or lack thereof). We go through it every year and yet for some reason we never see it coming. Well "NO MORE" says I. I will now and forever henceforth never be surprised by the change of seasons, as they are unchangeable and always in the same order. Why should we ever think otherwise?

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Body of Work.

Today is the Body Painting Arts Festival! While I did find a lot of information on body painting festivals, I didn't find anything telling me why today is a day dedicated to it. But I can still explain what it is! Body painting is usually when some removes most (if not all) of their clothes, and then paints their body. It can be anything from just one solid colour to something more elaborate like animal patterns or replicas of famous works of art. People usually do it for a reason or cause, but it can also be seen at very fancy (I use that word loosely), expensive, V.I.P., on-the-list-only type of parties. You usually use a specific kind of body paint, but I do not have that available to me. What I DO have available to me is paint that I'm going to paint my room with. Usually I avoid having paint fall on even so much as my fingers when I paint, but seeing as I'm so full of the holiday spirit, I suppose I won't avoid it as much today.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Magic Tricks and Politics

Today is the Festival of Smoke and Mirrors Day! This sounds like the kind of festival someone could lose a lot of money very fast in. Today is a day to celebrate, create, and partake in illusions. You can either go the classic route of magic tricks and sleight of hand, or you can take the phrase in it's more modern meaning of constantly hiding or distorting the truth. I recommend you take the first option, as almost everybody will enjoy a magic trick. On the other end of the spectrum, almost nobody likes a liar. It is all up to you, of course.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Funnel Spinach?

Today is Spinach Festival Day! Today is a day to pay some tribute to spinach by eating it or cooking it or at least watching Popeye the Sailor cartoons. I just got back from Six Flags and the combination of the hot, hot sun plus walking around for hours has left my stomach in quite a moody state, so I think I'll stick to watching Popeye. I also just don't have any spinach, and frankly am not well versed at all in what to make with it. Aside from Spinach Salad. Recipe: Spinach + Plate + Dressing?* (*may not be necessary)

Today is also Make Up Your Own Holiday Day! I assume that every year I can make a new one, and that my decision for today will not make every subsequent M.U.Y.O.H.D. the same celebration. In light of that made up knowledge, I choose to dub today "Funnel Cake Day". Funnel Cake is delicious. Even when it is as overpriced as it was at Six Flags, there is just no getting around the fact that it is an absolutely mouth watering treat. I mean look at this:

How could you not want to eat that?

Thanks for reading!

~Kyle

Down on one tentacle

Today is Proposal Day! It is a day to propose. Plain and simple. Maybe your boyfriend of 17 years has been dragging his feet slightly, you could drop a hint or two today. If you are a male and are planning to propose to the point that you have the ring with you at all times and you are just waiting for the perfect moment, then look VERY hard for an opportunity today in the spirit of the holiday. And I mean come on, what are you waiting for an engraved invitation? How many hints must she drop?

It could also just be a day to propose ideas or activities. It's literally as easy as putting the word 'propose' into the sentence. EX: [Before] "Let's go to a tour of a Wisconsin cheese factory" [After] "I propose we take a tour of a Wisconsin cheese factory". One of my favourite kinds of these proposals was the much prolonged (on purpose in a sense) proposal on The Office.

Today is also The Festival of Extraterrestrial Abductions! I know. Kind of a mood-wrecker. These holidays really don't mesh and it's going to kill me when I try to come up with a semi-witty title for this post that deals with both. Anyways, this is or was a festival where people would gather and celebrate(?) the fact that they had either been abducted or really wanted to be abducted. They make tin foil hats and statues and sell all sorts of things that I'm sure you could also find at places like A'Le'Inn. You can celebrate by wondering if the "Supermoon" was actually an alien mother-ship that may have abducted the people who will think they "missed out on seeing it."

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

Flowers in the sidewalk

Today is Festival of Life in the Cracks Day! This holiday was quite difficult to find any solid information on, but I think I now have a good idea of what it means. I'm fairly sure that anyone who has ever walked on a sidewalk has seen a crack from which a plant is growing or thousands of ants are traveling in and out of. Those would be examples of life in a crack. Now, I know that most of the things that live in those places are not usually on the top of our celebrating list. After all,  cracks, crevasses, and holes are where the creepy crawlers live. No person in their right mind would put their hand under a shady rock in the desert, and they definitely wouldn't celebrate the scorpion that they find. But, today is their day of celebration. That doesn't mean you have to go out of your way to have a one-on-one talk with that spider under your fridge that seems to just be sitting and waiting for its perfect chance to bite your toes, though.

I like to think of it as more of a celebration of the fact that life even can exist in such a place. They're small, dark, and cramped enough that I hardly even notice them most of the time. When I do think about it, though, it's pretty cool that a flower can find it's way through the tiniest little hole in the concrete. If anything, it stands out more than a flower in a field of flowers like it. I know that the flower in the cement is hardy simply because of where it has grown out of. Not to mention the bright color of it's petals in front of grey cement just makes it more noticeable.

So, if you really wanted to, you could make this a day to remember that a life in the cracks, although it can feel small, dark, and cramped, can be very rewarding after you get through that space. Much like the flower in the cement, it's easy to tell which people in life have been through some difficult situations or cracks in their life and come out better for it. Take today to also celebrate that they, like the flowers, are examples that it can be done.

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle

So the story goes...

I've never actually known a town that had a legend of it's own aside from large scale things such as the Loch Ness and other stories like it. Thanks to Cordova Ice Worm Day, I now know that there is a small town in Alaska called Cordova which has a festival to celebrate their very own legendary... beast? I mean their worms, but legendary beast sounds better than legendary worms. In fact the latter sounds like something you would want to get an immunity shot for. They are the ONLY place that has a celebration dedicated to this rarely seen worm, and they celebrate it right. By that I mean: they celebrate it in ways that I've always pictured a small town with it's own legend should. Games. Not just any games, though! Games that you would only find in a small town, which makes them rare and fun and usually very family friendly. There is the usual parade and exhibits, sure, but something tells me the real hidden fun is in such gems of games as " oyster Shuck-n-Suck, longest beard, best legs, and tastiest smoked salmon, among others". they even have a Miss Ice Worm Pageant! How would you ladies like to hold that title?


Now, unfortunately, I can't travel to alaska and back in day. I may be able to convince my family to do a few friendly competitions, and perhaps make everything I do today a game in my head. That's the best that I can do as of yet, though. Although maybe I could find some way to call someone in Cordova and wish them a happy day.


Thanks for reading!
~Kyle


P.S. A lot of the holiday info can be found here


http://cordovachamber.com/images/file/IW%20Program-2011-final-change-%201-31(1).pdf


and I got some here, too


http://www.frugalfun.com/cordova.html


And I just called Cordova. They were very nice and it makes me want to go next year. Its a week-long celebration almost!!!

Grab your comfiest of pajamas.

Because January 3rd is the Festival of Sleep! Today is dedicated to those many hours of sleep you lost last year. To celebrate, you simply sleep. Don't let anyone call you lazy for it, but instead just tell them that they have no holiday spirit. Now, I realize that some people may have work or school today, which will make sleeping tricky. But rest assured there are many different methods of sleep for you to use. Anything above the 8 hours you always get (because that's healthy and you always do what is healthy) can and should be counted as a celebratory sleep session. Nodding off in a boring meeting? Consider each of those head bobs a nod of recognition and remembrance towards an hour of sleep you lost last year. Got a study hall and you have nothing to study? Power nap for the rest of those 45 minutes like you weren't already going to. You could even pay tribute to specific parts of sleep. Do you like the dreams you have? Then day-dream (also called using your imagination) today and discuss what the odd machinations of your inner mind are creating with your fellow dreamers. I'm sure you'll find a way to celebrate, and I'm sure there are many. As for myself, I'll be taking a few cat naps or doing something I like to call "Sleep Zoning"

Thanks for reading!
~Kyle