Everything's Better With Princesses

Started out a somewhat cloudy morning with It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown as I had banana bread and fruit cocktail for breakfast. The Peanuts are getting ready for spring with gags about shopping and how early stores put up their Christmas decorations. Linus insists the preparations aren't necessary. The Easter Beagle will do all that. Sally isn't sure - Linus' pet theories tend to be more fanciful than realistic. Lucy's more interested in Schroeder giving her Easter candy and finding the eggs she hid. Peppermint Patty would be happy to have any eggs. She's trying to teach Marcie how to color them, but her best friend keeps doing everything but hard-boiling them!

I was surprised with how warm it was when I headed out today. It had to be in the upper 60s by 11, and the sun was coming out and making it even warmer. It's a good thing it did get nice, because I had a lot to do. I started with a quick peek at the Oaklyn Library. They're still organizing the kids' section, so between that and it being quiet, there isn't a lot to do there. I did the DVD sections and headed out.

The sun was out by the time I headed over to Collingswood. It was so warm, I shed my blue zipper hoodie half-way there. Mom and Dad and Keefe sent me birthday cards yesterday. The former gave me a check for 50 dollars. I cashed that at the PNC a block from the train terminal and kept it for money for the week.

I dodged the noon traffic on Cuthbert and made my way to the Haddon Township Library next. While the adult DVDs just needed to be shelved, there were a lot of kids' DVDs to put away and organize. They have GOT to clear out the 'S' titles! I'm a fan of Scooby Doo, but they really don't need at least 30 titles from that series alone.

I rented some of those new kids' titles. The new princess-themed Disney cartoon Sophia the First makes its debut at the library in the set Ready to Be A Princess. I also picked up some new Jake and the Never Land Pirates and a space-themed Cat In the Hat Knows A Lot About That. Found last year's The Wolverine (which I hope is an improvement over the so-so X-Man Origins: Wolverine) and one of the few John Hughes movies I've never seen, Pretty In Pink. Speaking of Wolverine, I also discovered a PBS special on the history of superheroes, from their debut in the 30s to the present-day blockbusters, while shelving non-fiction titles. I thought that one might help me with my current story, which I'm kind of stalled on at the moment.

I went to lunch after leaving the library. It was past 2PM, so I just went with a simple grilled cheese and tomato sandwich on whole wheat bread and a cup of cole slaw at the Westmont Bagel Shop, their "lunch box deal." I bought cards for Rose and Khai's birthdays at Dollar Tree. (Khai's is the day before Easter!) Picked up a few things I needed that were on sale or cheaper at Thriftway, including sugar and yogurt. They were having good sales on Jello pudding, Cool Whip, and cookie crusts, so I decided to make a pudding pie instead of cake for dessert.

After I made my way around the heavy school and early rush hour traffic on Cuthbert and the White Horse Pike, I spent the rest of the afternoon at home. As nice at it was, I had a lot of chores to do, starting with scrubbing the kitchen. I had put off doing it and the bathroom as long as I could, but they were both too gross for words. I'm going to hold off the major spring cleaning until next month; this was just to get the grime off.

Ran Sophia the First as I cleaned and made the Lemon Pudding Pie. Sophia was once the daughter of a peasant seamstress, until the King married her mother. Now, she's not only dealing with a new dad and siblings, but she's learning what's expected of her as royalty, too. The King and her brother James are fairly good-natured and down-to-earth, but her sister Amber and several of her friends are rather spoiled and vain.

My favorite story was one I can certainly relate to. Sophia hears stories about "The Shy Princess" when Vivian is assigned to be her partner in a "Design Your Dream Castle" class at their royal school. The other girls say she has gnomes for parents and lives in a cave! Turns out Vivian's just a very quiet girl who lives in a Gothic-y castle and has an overly enthusiastic pet baby dragon named Crackle. Vivian's too shy to get involved with the presentation for their castle...until Sophia notices her amazing musical ability and convinces her to play for the kids.

(A personal note on "The Shy Princess": I wish I'd known someone like Sophia as a kid. The few girls I made friends with in grade school either moved away after as much as a few months, talked and made fun of me behind my back, or decided they liked my sisters or other people better. Few kids my own age ever stood up for me or encouraged me. I don't have a problem onstage. Put me on a stage, even just reciting, and I'm a bit of a ham. It's everything else - small groups, meeting strangers - where I have problems. Even now, I often get too nervous to talk to people.)

Vivian and Crackle also figured into "Blue Ribbon Bunny." Sophia's rabbit Clover is an ordinary wild rabbit, and not an especially handsome one. She wants to enter him in a pet show, but Amber doesn't think he's talented or good-looking enough. She convinces Sophia to take a fancy white rabbit named Ginger. Ginger turns out to be haughty and too serious. An angry Crackle finally reminds Sophia that her friendship with Clover is more important than any contest. "The Princess Test" also emphasizes the importance of kindness. Sophia wants to do well on a big test that will cover everything she and her schoolmates have learned about being princesses. The other girls refuse to help their librarian get books to her cottage, but Sophia has no problem, even though she's worried about being late for the test. She and the others learn that kindness its it's own reward when they discover who the librarian really is.

Switched to The Cat In the Hat Knows A Lot About That as I made baked salmon with roasted asparagus and celery sticks for dinner. Space Is the Place covers all things celestial, from a trip to the moon to naming the planets. The Cat's human friend Astronaut Audrey introduces the kids to how we get night and day and explains why it can't be one or the other all the time in "No Night Today." The kids want to find out where the "Top of the Sky" is, but Audrey and several animals give them a surprising answer. In "Tough Enough," the Cat claims his friend Wally the Water Bear (who seems to be a kind of caterpillar-thing) is so tough, can live anywhere...even in space! He and the kids shrink down to Wally's level to test their theory.

I finished out my night in the bath. I really needed a nice, relaxing bath after this crazy week. I settled down, read The Three Musketeers, and listened to jazz music. I know I only have a part-time job that probably doesn't keep me as busy as normal people with full-time jobs or two jobs or more, but it's still a lot of standing and dealing with people, and even at part-time, that's stressful for me.