Tracy just pointed out that today was also Pig’s birthday from Pearls Before Swine!
This is super special and awesome to me — you might remember, I’m a big fan of Stephan Pastis. He’s a super nice and crazy fun guy. He’s also a Talented Capricorn of Greek Descent — his birthday’s later this week. Some of you might remember the YouTube video I made for his birthday last year, starring the cast of Pearls Before Swine. I just watched it again. It’s still silly and fabulous and I’m so glad I did it.
I have always been jealous that Soteria shared a birthday with Garfield the Cat (June 19th). Now I don’t have to be jealous ANY MORE. Thank you, Stephan!!
…and it’s not even 11:11 yet! I already have tiara greetings from all over the world from humans, dogs, cats, fish…even piggies! The tiaras are wide-ranging and imaginative, and the only things I love more are the people wearing them.
Here’s my birthday twin, author Richard Wright, who is currently in New Delhi and also celebrating a 1-11-11 birthday today. Check out his spectacular bowler hat tiara…and click on his picture to see the rest of the photo album.And check back…I’ll be adding photos as I get them all throughout the day!
I am currently kicking myself. For my birthday, Dad got together an entire collage of the folks he works with at Knight’s Armament, all wearing tiaras. That’s right — crowns, books, and guns galore — and I left the CD on the dining room table. Mom put it in a box with the rest of my presents and it’s on its way to me…but I wanted to post it NOW, in anticipation of tomorrow’s big event. *sigh* The best laid plans of mice and men. And princesses.
This, of course, does not stop me from officially launching the photo album a day early, however…I just don’t have as many pictures to fill it. This, of course, means I get to save the best for first: the loveliest of lovelies, Leanna Renee Hieber sent me a picture with her AWESOME Edward Gorey tiara!
Is your tiara polished? Give me your best smile and snap that picture! I can’t wait to see you guys!
Due to…well…life, the Kontis Clan didn’t get to have Christmas until this week. We were all too excited to wait until Three King’s Day (today), so we opened the massive amount of presents (pics to come) and had a lobster feast before playing Cranium so loudly we kept the neighbors up (payback for their annoying dog).
Once upon a time, back in Ye Olden Heyday of The Kontis Sisters’ reign, Soteria and I would stage impromptu variety shows. If YouTube had been around then, we’d be seriously famous right now. As it is, there are zero home movies of us as children. We couldn’t afford a video camera. Heck, my parents still don’t even have call waiting.
We performed as the spirit moved us for whomever would stand still long enough to watch. For my grandmother’s ladies’ club, for my friends’ parents, and for the family almost every single Christmas. We eventually roped in the neighbor kids to put on the greatest Christmas Eve pageants ever. (They were Cajun, so Christmas Eve dinner there was always fried oyster po’boys. God, I miss those.) We performed skits, sang songs, and one year I wrote a story that left no dry eye in the room.
And then we all moved away and the performances just stopped. That is…until last night.
In our house growing up, there were a lot of rules. Soteria and I would joke that Mom’s favorite saying (next to “If I find it, can I smack you?”) was: “There’s a new rule.” There’s a famous story of how we groaned once and Mom said, “Oh, come on. We don’t have that many rules.” Soteria and I went upstairs and came down hours later with no less than 186 rules.
Both of us wish Mom and Dad had kept that list. We’d give just about anything to have it now. Every so often one of us will remember a rule, and we’ll call the other one to remind her and have a great laugh about it. We were having a conversation very much like this a few days ago, when Soteria suggested rewriting “The Twelve Days of Christmas” with a bunch of the rules we had as kids. An hour–and much giggling–later, we had our song.
Here it is, performed for our Eleventh Night Greek Christmas, with no rehearsal whatsoever. I hope you find it as amusing as we did.
Mom just sent this horoscope to me and Dad because our birthdays are coming up:
This is your time of the year leading the Zodiac family. This universal boost gives booster rockets to propel you on and up to your dreams. Stay focused, clarify your goals. Write them down and affirm them out loud each day. This is the formula of champions. You are a champion. Great happiness is on the way.
I haven’t made any New Year’s Resolutions this year. It still hasn’t felt like a new year, really. Yule always feels like a new year, because that’s when the light comes back. Selling my novel felt like a new year, because it lit a fire under my butt and motivated me to do many, many more things (some of which you will experience very soon). My birthday is going to feel like a new year, because by then I’ll have finally had Christmas with my folks, we’ll all have done the BIRTHDAY TIARA EXTRAVAGANZA, and I’ll be well on my way to fame & fortune & the gym (I’m gonna guess probably not in that order…but anything’s possible).
This horoscope is telling me to write down my goals. Okay, so while I haven’t made any resolutions, I do have The Princess’s List of Things to Do (and now I can check off blogging). I’m always adding to that list, marking things off, and rewriting it. (Whenever I come across other lists I’ve made, I go through them and make sure I’ve done everything.) My goal is to work on this list every day. It’s not a New Year’s Resolution…it’s just everything I need to do, formula of champions or not.
But some on…the thought of reading my To-Do List aloud every morning kind of makes me want to throw up a little. I know how much I have to do, and how much work each line on that list entails. I can feel swamped and inadequate very well on my own without any help from you, Mister Horoscope! I am here, I am loved, and I will do great things. That is my affirmation. I’ll be far more productive saying that every morning.
Things will be sporadic on the blog here this week — my holiday season’s not over yet! On Wednesday I’m flying to Florida for Christmas with my parents and sister. And next week is PRINCESS ALETHEA’S BIG BIRTHDAY TIARA SPECTACULAR! (Do you have your tiara ready yet?)
In the meantime I wanted to share with you this humbling Christmas video that reminds us bibliophiles…not everyone is always a fan.
Mom just sent this horoscope to me and Dad because our birthdays are coming up:
