July 1, 2014

This is the first day of July and is also the first day of the:

Second Half Of The Year Day – This is a day to look back on your New Year's Resolutions. What have you accomplished and what do you need to work harder on? Figure out if you were unrealistic with your goals and change, update and renew your goals and dedication to accomplishing them.

National Gingersnap Day – Crispy, crunchy and impossible to mistake for anything else because of the strong smell of ginger.  This is a love it or hate it kind of cookie.

Canada Day – A federal holiday in Canada, this day celebrates the anniversary of the Constitution Act which created Canada from three colonies in 1867.

National GSA Employee Day – The General Services Administration, an independent agency of the United States government, was established in 1949 and helps manage and support federal agencies with transportation, office space, cost cutting policies and other assorted administrative functions. They employ more than 10,000 people and today is their day.

Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day – There are more wacky ice cream flavors that you can possibly imagine. There are the traditional vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry everywhere you go and every ice cream maker has their own special flavors like chocolate peanut butter cup. But then, if you go looking in local ice cream parlors you can find crazy flavors like Lavender Honey Ice Cream, and Sea Salt Dulce de Leche Ice Cream. You can go to a garlic festival and find garlic ice cream. You can even find ice cream that really shouldn't be ice cream.

U.S. Postage Stamp Day – Before postage stamps were created in 1840 in the United Kingdom, mail was to be paid for by the person receiving the mail, not the person sending the mail. Which is ridiculous because if the receiver didn't want to or was not able to pay for it, the postal service didn't get paid. Also the people sending the mail sent whatever they wanted, no matter what it might ultimately cost the recipient. The postage stamp changed all that and made the mail system much more efficient. Over the next twenty or so years, other countries followed suit with the United States issuing their first official stamps on this day in 1847.

Zip Code Day – Before airplanes became a really reliable form of transporting mail around the country, and even for some time afterward, the Post Office used the much slower railroad. With the population booming, the Post Office was having a lot of difficulty delivering the mail in an efficient manner, so in the 1960's they spent quite some time working on finding a solution to that. On this day in 1963, the zip code system began and involved some major readjustments in the method of transporting mail.

International Joke Day – I was unable to find out who created this day, but for a day like this that is not important information. Today is a day for joking all around the world. Laughter is important to us for many different reasons so enjoy the excuse to laugh today. Tell jokes and spread the fun around the world.

To celebrate today, take some gingersnap cookies and interesting ice cream up to Canada to celebrate their Constitution with them.  Then find some GSA employees on the way home and tell them some jokes before you go to the post office to buy stamps and check to make sure your zip code is still the same.  Finally, review your resolutions and renew your dedication to making them happen.