Along with everyone else in our galaxy, I am devastated by the passing of Carrie Fisher. Carrie is my go-to author for funny memoirs and telling tall-but-true tales. The cleverness of Carrie Fisher is, in a word, astounding. When my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year, The Princess Diarist was at the top of my list. I had just re-read Wishful Drinking (twice) and was deep into a Carrie-fest, so I was eagerly anticipating her latest book about her Leia-laced life, which she generously shared through a lens of humor, wit and self-examination like no other.
Like Carrie (but on a far lesser scale) my life was somewhat Leia-laced as well. Ms. Fisher has been a profound influence on my life, but not in the usual Star Wars fan-sy kind of way. You see, during my college years, Princess Leia helped me pay the rent. Weird, but true. I had two different jobs playing Princess Leia and like Ms. Fisher, I have quite a few funny (and poignant) stories from those brief stints as the one-and-only Rebel Princess. Money was really tight during those self-supporting college years, so being Princess Leia might have saved me from being homeless.
Even weirder; I somehow attracted guys that freakishly resembled Luke Skywalker and Han Solo(s). Probably because I looked like Leia.
With all that being said, my tribute to Carrie/Leia is obviously going to take more than one post; but that makes sense because Carrie/Leia was always giving us sequels. And I'm too sad to write about all the funny stuff that happened when I got to don my intergalactic buns to go to work.
For now, I am grateful that Carrie (and Leia) will always be with us, just like The Force and just as Ms. Fisher predicted.
She was, is, and forever will be, the original, butt-kicking Buns of Steel. (Buns as in "hair" and also as in "buns" - I mean, who else could look like that in a slave bikini?). And her pen was a mighty Force.
Top photo: Photo of me taken by my hubby when we visited Seattle's EMP Museum in 2015 and happily discovered the Star Wars Costume Exhibit. Upon passing the iconic metal bikini I had to pay tribute to my one-time alter ego by channeling my inner Princess Leia (sporting makeshift intergalactic buns).
Bottom photo: The little bobble-head & figurine vignette that has long resided beside the computer on my desk. As you can see, I am beholden to strong women characters in film. The Leias on my desk have been gifts over the years from my BFF, Sheila, who knows -- and was usually a part of -- all the Princess Leia stories of my life.
