The Plague hits the castle

The morning after the Princess’s little soiree, Queen Lakeview looks at her and says, “Your eye is really red. I think you have pinkeye!” The Queen is known for being a bit on the dramatic side, so the princess just chalked it up to the visit to a smoky pub on the way home from the restaurant (the little berg in which we were staying did not have a smoking ban). Luckily, the princess had brought along Prince Shut Up’s prescription antibiotic eye drops from his last round of pink eye (two weeks ago) and used those. By Monday she felt so bad she took the prince to his caretaking establishment and went to urgent care. She received not only antibiotics, but also prednisone (three days, 30 mg) to kill the two week old cough that two boxes of Mucinex hadn’t eradicated (but did help her sleep). The pink eye was "just" a manifestation of her cold/secondary infection.

While I will never promote the use of drugs for anything other than it’s intended use (to do so would be illegal), let me give other dethroned princesses out there a little tip: you can clean an entire house in one day while on steroids and without a little one underfoot. When I say, "clean" I mean closets, drawers, under beds, cabinets, etc. etc. It was the most work I have ever accomplished while taking a sick day in my entire life. :-)

The princess gets a tiara

OK so maybe I didn’t get my crown totally back, but for one day, I did get to wear a beautiful plastic silver tiara covered with gaudy plastic “jewels” designed for a 6 year old’s head. Princess Belle had a “milestone” birthday and and was given a lavish soiree for the event. The King and Queen even watched Prince Shut Up for THREE WHOLE HOURS so Prince Charming and I, accompanied by our court (ten friends), could have some adult conversation that was not interrupted with, “Crayons do not belong in our ears” or “Spoons are not used to fling food on the wall.” As we returned from our early evening out, we spent time with the little one, then put him to bed and continued with festivities. These, of course, were much tamer than earlier milestone birthdays before children were in the picture but still much fun was had. The princess really, really needed this!