Quaint Queens

ABC Wednesday is a word meme with participants from around the world. This fabulous meme was created and hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt who hails from Great Britain. Over time, others have joined in to help host this wonderful and informative meme. We are now in our seventh round-some of the participants have been with this from the very first round; others have joined in along the way. Each week we are taken across the globe to see the varied and exciting contributions people have taken the time to discover and capture. We start with the letter, "A" and each week we post something in regards to the next letter of the alphabet. This week's letter is, "Q".

Queen of Pretzels

Meet my friend, Julie. She heads up the midwifery program over at the University of New Mexico. It's a graduate program in the School of Nursing. Every year, she hosts at her lovely  home a special tea for the incoming students. The event is not an official UNM event, but a philanthropical, private event. It is high tea with the full regalia (remember the stack of plates from last week's post? that was from that event). There are about 60 women who attend this event and Julie has all the china for it that she has amassed over the years via garage sales and on Ebay. Oh yes, and at this tea I am usually bestowed with the honor of being Mother. That's the one who serves the tea. Did you see the movie, "Tea With Mussolini"? There is a reference in that movie to the honors of being 'mother'. I am honored to have this role at her tea. Many of Julie's friends wish they could attend, but it is by invitation only and only to those in the program and department. It has a silent auction and a live auction of wonderful things to buy. The monies raised goes towards the students in the program.
So, all of this does not explain, however, why my friend Julie is dressed up as the Queen of Pretzels. Read on.
Each year, this event comes with a theme. It was wenches a few years back. This year's theme was, "queen". I must say that everyone really gets into the theme wholeheartedly and all are very creative in their approach. And every year, there are hats and gloves involved. You never know what clever costume you will see at this event, but you can count on seeing many clever costumes!
I might add too, that those that are in attendance are not only the first year students, but also returning students, faculty in the program along with other midwives from the community that originated from this program. This is an important preface in order to prepare you for some of the following outfits! An added note too, that I might not have their queen titles entirely accurate!

Queen Speculum

If you will look closely at the image (click on it to make it bigger), you will see her 'namesake' right below that crystal knob.

Queen Bee

Queen of the Fairies

Beauty Queen (Miss Vagina)

 No, that's not a typo! That's how she pronounced it! Her speech for the 'beauty pagent' was that she was for healthy vaginas! There was also a Miss West Virgina (pronounced as 'vagina' again). Remember the profession...

Drama Queen

Queen Elizabeth

Queen Pain in the Ass

Queen Fiona

Queen of Pessary

Yep. Pessary. Not a place, but a thing.  A pessary is a device that scootches up a woman's vagina to hold her uterus/bladder/bowel up if it/they are prolapsing. A prolapse is most uncomfortable and not too pretty. Surgery is one way to remedy it, but for those who would like to try a non-surgical intervention, a pessary might work. Pessaries are an old-fashioned treatment that is coming back into vogue. But, that is what this person was the queen of.Her name is Ellen and she speaks about this nationally and has a busy pessary clinic at the University of New Mexico Clinic (thanks, Julie for sending me this info!).

Queens at the check in table

Table of Queens

Well, you get the idea now. Many queens were present that day. I, myself came as the:

Queen of Sheba

Although, I look more like Cleopatra (she was there too). When I was a little girl, my mother would ask me from time to time, "Who do you think you are? The Queen of Sheba?"

And there you have your "Q" word for today. Queens.