July 29th, 1981.  I will never forget that date.  Actually, that’s not true.  I had completely forgotten that date and just had to look it up on Wikipedia, but I will never forget that day.  Princess Di and Prince Charles got married.  We were on a family holiday in PEI, which as family holidays go, was one of our worst.  Nothing against the beautiful province of PEI… Look how lovely it is….

But, our vacation went something like this… A 17 gajillion hour car ride, a bizarro motel with a tennis court that was essentially a wall around a part of the parking lot, and I’m not even sure it was regulation size, a swimming pool also surrounded by a fence about 1.5 feet away from the edge of the pool, but covered in astro-turf so as to make it seem like it wasn’t in the middle of the parking lot as well… arriving at our ‘charming cottage on the ocean’ to find that it wasn’t so much ‘charming‘ as dilapitated, not so much a ‘cottage‘ as a camp bunk house, and not so much ‘on the ocean’ as on a filthy bay full of seaweed and… well… other filth… my brother discovering that he was deathly allergic to fish (or was it peanuts? it’s irrelevant because he’s terribly allergic to both…) and ruining the quintessential PEI experience of Anne of Green Gables by having to be rushed to the hospital….

Anyhow, I think you get the picture.  It wasn’t the BEST vacation ever.  Although, there is something to be said for terrible vacations… they make good stories later.  If you ever have a chance, ask my Dad how he liked India.  I never tire of hearing about how much he disliked it.  It’s endlessly entertaining to me.  Partially because I happen to LOVE/HATE India myself.  In fact, if you ever have the chance, ask me how my last trip to India was.  I take great pleasure in describing the hell that is Delhi airport, the “most awkward lunch meeting ever in the history of the world” that Sally and I had to sit through with a furniture supplier in Jodhpur… Also, no disrespect meant to Jodhpur… I actually love that town/city… and as it happens, it was on a rooftop there in 1999 that I came up with the idea for Lola & Emily… Here’s Jodhpur, only because if I don’t insert any photos, this will be a 7000 word rambling.  I’m just back from what, as it happens, was the anti-thesis of our family vacation in PEI (ie. it was AWESOME), and haven’t posted in a long time, so I’m feeling chatty…. my apologies in advance.  Right.  Jodhpur.

Blah, blah, blah.  I do actually LOVE India.  Well, most of it.  Except Delhi.  Ask Sally… I am allergic to that city.  Anyhow, the whole point of this was July 29th, 1981.  THE Royal Wedding.  I remember waking up at 4 or 5am to watch it with my Mom… It was so exciting.  So fairytale.  Of course, it didn’t end up that way… but at the time, it was just SO incredible to watch.  Looking back at the dress, you know, it’s a bit much for my taste.  But, presumably, when I was 10 and it was 1981, it was THE SHIT, and what every Princess would want to wear. 

And Princess Di was SO beautiful.  And young.

It doesn’t get much more fairytale than that, right?  So I guess all of this is the longest way ever to ask if you all plan on watching THE Royal Wedding?  I don’t know… I’m not sure I can force myself to get up at 4am to watch all of the coverage, but there is something about the whole event that is exciting to me.  Maybe because it reminds me of being 10 years old back in 1981… I know, times have changed, and perhaps this is not quite the world event that Princess Di/Prince Charles was… but still… I’m pretty sure I will be watching it.  Thankfully this time I will be comfortably sitting on my couch at home, as opposed to on some sort of cot in a musty cabin on a filthy bay in PEI… Hmmm.  Is it weird that that somehow doesn’t sound so bad to me anymore?  Ok, enough with the rose-tinted glasses of my youth… It was crap, who am I kidding.  But, it remains a cherished memory because I am nothing if not sappy when it comes to my family…

Right.  The Wedding.  Are you watching it or not?  Do you even care?  Is it just a reason for the Brits to take a day off and get pissed drunk?  Should we ALL take a day off and get pissed drunk?  They are OUR Royal family as well………. I’m going to go to a Pub and think about this.  Report back to me tomorrow.

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