DolciDeleria

Well, we're back...

I've been digging my way out of the pile up of Stuff accumulated while we were on vacation in California. Seventeen days, 8 different sleeping locations (two of them on Amtrak), 6 kinds of transportation, lots of friends and a new cousin. Great to see everyone, and great to be home.

It's New Year's, and I keep thinking I should be making up a list of goals or something. Make some bold declarations. But mostly I keep coming back to wanting more of what I've got. I'll keep gardening, sewing, freelancing. I suppose I could say that I want to write more, exercise more, and so forth, but I say that every year. Maybe this year I'll actually do something about it.

We took Caitlyn to see The Princess and The Frog. It was her first introduction to anything Disney Princess, with the minor exception of seeing a box set of Disney Princess dolls in Target (we were looking for crayons, which were in the "Stationary" part of the store, not the "Toys and Games" part) - a set of Barbie-style figures in big, sparkly dresses: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Jasmine, Belle and Tiana. Caitlyn did a comic-book screech-to-a-halt, doubled back, stood before the dolls and said, "Mama, I want this!" Why, I asked her, since she hadn't seen any of the movies and only knows about Snow White through a coloring book and an antique in her room. Her answer was mostly incoherent, but I think the appeal was the sparkly, shimmery dresses.

Anyway, we saw the movie today. She seemed to like it, although she was unnerved by the evil shadows, as one should be, and disappointed whenever the storyline veered away from the frogs. I appreciated the balance of Light and Dark magicks and that the movie didn't end with a wedding. Tiana gets her man and her dreams, though both take a bit of work, and she's clearly the one In Charge in her relationship. The childhood friend character who is desperate to marry a prince, at the end of the movie, is declaring that she's "waited this long" so it'll be ok for her to keep waiting for the prince who will marry her. Kinda turns the traditional "marry a prince who can keep you and everything will be ok" pattern on its head.