~ Friends ~
Ambassador Rodger is my travel companion from the Kingdom of Gastropods. Let’s just say snails are better known for their wisdom than their social graces… But as snails go, he is on the personable side. The last one I had, Richard, didn’t talk about anything but food… snail food.
The Princess Sanet is my best friend and lives in Cape Town, South Africa with her new kitty, Koi. She speaks four languages and works as an interpreter at a university there while pursuing her masters degree. She lives a zero-waste lifestyle, loves the beach, KPop, watching TV series, eating cupcakes, and daydreaming about handsome boys on Italian motorcycles.
The Princess Lauren is from the mountains of Tennessee. She’s fiercely independent with a temper to match, but she can wield her southern charm as a strong seduction tool when she chooses. There’s nothing to be done but respect and get out of her way once she’s set her mind to something. She lives in Johnson City, Tennessee, working as a realtor and venue coordinator in that mountain town.
The Princess Courtney is the sweetest Georgia peach you’ll ever meet. Her freckles, cute smile, and ready laugh make her like southern sunshine! She has two mischievous kitties and has achieved her dream of being a CPA in Gainesville, Georgia. You can find her living wherever there’s a quiet forest view.
Princess Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn – aka Kaitlin and Brandi – are the most mischievous and playful princesses I know. One is in Arizona and one is in Georgia, but it’s always easy to laugh with them, and they have helped me more than they know in finding my way in this life. They make lots of inside jokes about comic books that I don’t understand. Laughter aside, during the serious moments, they will always fight fiercely for the underdog.
~ Family ~
The King has a beautiful view from his airport, set in the mountains of the North Georgia countryside. He owns and manages the airport as a business, working for himself as a small-business owner and entrepreneur. His favorite part of his work is always people. People who fly in and fly out, people who wander out to see airplanes for fun, people who drop by to visit him and just want to talk. He loves good coffee and doing things to help people. He also loves men of history and reads through many thick biographies each year. I go out to see him since he works every day there, usually asking questions about my car and talking (sometimes arguing) about life and politics.
The Queen can usually be found cooking something healthy and delicious, reading the latest health research, doing cardio in the gym, or finding beautiful things in thrift stores. She is the reason the house’s floors gleam and the bathroom is not disastrous. She loves having tea parties with friends – I usually give her pretty teacups for her birthday, and she collects them from all corners of the world, so teacups peek out from all the house’s nooks and crannies. Right now she is fearlessly remodeling our house.
The Princess Mackenzie is my sister – she bounces in and out of the house these days: college classes, running cross-country, really cool friends, a boyfriend, and two part-time jobs keep her busy. She comes home at midnight and wakes up at five o’clock in the morning, and that’s barely exaggerating. My mother says she has the energy of a squirrel and she is just as cute. She has also been skydiving four times.
The Prince Asa is a strange, enigmatic character who prefers solitude and sleeping outdoors in forests. He is my second-to youngest brother, and he’s already finished a solo thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. He works part time and is starting to plan his life… although what exactly that will be, no one else is allowed to know yet. He, too, is working on college classes.
The Prince Asher, my youngest brother, has grown enormously tall in the past few years and now towers over everyone in the family, waving giant limbs like a pterodactyl as he articulates strong opinions about religion and politics. Not only is he in high school, he’s also in college joint enrollment classes. He’s a confident prince who never worries about striking off in a completely unusual direction. Routine and organization are very important to him: he keeps the top button on his shirt done and his hair combed. He’s the only one of us who’s at all interested in video games or computer science… leading us to believe he may have been switched at birth.