Tiara-wearing experience

I was sitting in my youngest sister's room one day not too long ago-- I often visit her after church, since she lives between me and the church I attend-- and she asked me what I had done for my last birthday. Since my birthday always fell exactly during finals at the university I attended, I have been pretty well trained that having birthday parties is fairly useless, but I did have a lovely time at a friend's house; we made challah* together and she sent envy pics to her brother-in-law with whom she has a friendly rivalry about matters domestic.

My sister looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, then said, "I think I should lend you my tiara." Her friends had bought her a tiara for her graduation from college, which she suggested I could wear around the house from time to time. She can't do this so much because she lives with some guys, and they probably wouldn't understand the need for a girl to wear a tiara around the house. She got it out for me and I put it on; she took a picture, which I think I look funny in, but it is also kind of cute, so I don't mind so much.

After that I was going down to a friend's house, and since I was just driving, I decided to wear it that far. Once I got there, I sort of felt like wearing it inside-- but of course that would be silly. But then I saw that a small child was visiting her auntie, my friend's roommate, and I decided that this kind of silly would be my kind of silly, today.

I wasn't really expecting the response I got. The small child's parents immediately said, "Oh! Look! Do you see that a PRINCESS is visiting us? Do you want to say hello to the PRINCESS?" And my first thought was: this is a little odd... but my second thought was, people who wear tiaras in public should be prepared to play along with games like this.

And I would have, but the little girl was just not into it, which I was absolutely fine with; I feel like most kids do better when you don't push them on things like this. Her parents explained that they hadn't been to Disneyworld yet, but that they were planning a visit. Ah-hah!

Then I needed to leave the room for a couple of minutes, and when I came back, the child was ready to talk. She wanted to tell me about a couple of her friends who had needed to go to the doctor, and while her parents thought her choice of topics was hilarious, I felt it was my obligation as a princess to listen to her very seriously, which I did.

And then I had to leave.

But the best part happened when I visited the next week, and we were talking about it, and the auntie-roommate mentioned casually that her niece had cried when I left. I mean, I'm not normally in to making children cry, but if one is going to do so, this is definitely the way that makes me happy.

It kind of makes me wonder where else I should wear a tiara. More on this later, perhaps.

*Challah is Jewish Sabbath bread. Pretty yummy, braided, has eggs and is a bit sweet. They sell it in the stores around here, and after I had bought it a few times I decided I should just start making it myself. I use Epicurious' Chernowitzer Challah recipe, with half the oil, in case anyone is interested.