Princess Power

So I've been meaning to write about the Disney Princesses for a while now but this post was especially spurred by A. who visited me last weekend with his Ariel - The Little Mermaid - Visa card in tow. Everywhere we went - the sushi restaurant, the bar, the movie theater - people always cheerfully commented on his Visa card featuring Ariel's bright smiling face. The positive reactions A. received everywhere solidified my belief that the Disney Princesses are liked by many, never fail to bring a smile to someone's face (at least as I've seen), and as A. said 'are a good conversation starter.'

I rediscovered (my first two Disney phases being from ages 4-9 and 13-14) my love of the Disney Princesses soon after moving to Austin when H. and I went to Hobby Lobby. While perusing the aisles I found these fabulous napkins featuring Snow White, Ariel, and Jasmine which I, of course, just had to buy. Not long after I discovered that Target sells napkins too (featuring Belle, Sleeping Beauty and Ariel) and also these amazing Disney Princess stickers. And a little bit after that, I happily found out that whenever I sent people envelopes decorated with one of the Princess stickers or whenever I had people for dinner and gave them a Princess napkin they would get really excited.

I think it's both fabulous and super cool that the Princesses are not just for little girls. I know so many people - old & young, women & men - who are into them. They're not hard to like! They are all so pretty and smiley, and interesting too! I love Belle (Beauty and the Beast) the best because she loves reading and wants to get out of her little provincial town and find adventure in the great wide somewhere. But I have to say I like all of them. I think I look the most like Snow White, and she gets points for being the original Princess. Sleeping Beauty (Aurora) is very pretty, and the end of that movie when she was dancing with Prince Philip and the fairies kept making her dress either pink or blue is one of my favourite Disney scenes ever. Cinderella is very sweet and possibly the nicest one - as exemplified by her devoted mice friends (Gus!) in the movie. I like Ariel because she's a redhead, because she was a mermaid and because she knew, without a doubt, what she wanted in life. And Jasmine has a lot of spunk and character, is very pretty, and is very well-matched with Aladdin. Disney has a new movie (The Princess and the Frog) and a new Princess named Tiana coming out in the fall and I can't wait to meet her! I am sure she will be as cool and lovely as the others.

Make Your Move

So many things go into moves -- packing, organizing, remembering, goodbyes, excitement, dread, nerves the list could go on and on. But I realized that probably the hardest part of moves for me is watching one's apartment become slowly and increasingly diminished, piece by piece. When I left my Hilgard apt in Berkeley three years ago I felt literally sick to my stomach that whole last week of June as all my furniture (except my bed) was gone. Being inside my apt that last week was painful- both emotionally and physically- because this place that I had loved so much was now both empty, and worse still, held all the tell tale signs of moving like open suitcases and belongings strewn across the floor.
The sick feeling wasn't as strong with my apt in Austin - really just a faint echo of the Berkeley feeling - but it was there nonetheless. The Austin diminishment was more gradual because in Berkeley the majority of the furniture left in one day. In Austin though, it was slower with the dresser and armchair one day, the table the next, and so on and so forth until I was again just left with a bed, open suitcases and my belongings decorating the floor. Though it may have happened more gradually, it was actually harder because with each piece of furniture that left, my apt began to feel less and less like my own. The walls, windows, carpets and shelves were all the same but the things on the inside - the most important things - weren't there anymore. It was like watching all the tangible things of my life in Austin disappear. And though I was (and am) left with the intangible things, somehow watching the tangible things make their way out the door and on to their new lives left me with that slightly sick feeling.
In a way it really shouldn't have though, because the day after the last piece of furniture - my bed- left and began its new life, I did too. And that, I suppose, is the flipside of every move - you may be leaving somewhere but you're also starting somewhere too.