One thing I love about working at a Jesuit university is that we get Good Friday off! (hence the blogging during the day on Friday). I will be splitting the weekend between my parent's new house in Alexandria and my grandparent's in the Shenandoahs, so I'm really looking forward to a weekend of pure relaxation after thoroughly running myself ragged in the week leading up to Welcome Weekend (and then paying for it this week by getting really sick).
In other news, the event of the century (the royal wedding, naturally!) is almost upon us! Come next Friday, the 29th of April, millions of eyes will be turned to each respective nation's BBC affiliate to catch a glimpse of Kate Middleton's much talked-about dress and, hopefully, a glimpse of a royal kiss on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
In Sarah Lyall's April 21st NYT article, she says of Kate that, "she is like an old-time Hollywood star, full of mystery, a canvas onto which the world can project its fantasies." I think that, in a world of TMI when it comes from everyone to celebrities to politicians, Kate is a breath of fresh air: someone who is content with what life has handed her but doesn't feel the need to make an exhibition of herself because of it. I think that the poise and grace with which she handles herself is incredibly admirable...and damn it, she has an amazing wardrobe that any girl would be silly not to envy!!! PLUS she's marrying the arguably better-looking of the princes! I don't really buy the rags-to-riches story that the press so often attempts to construct for her; yes, her parents may have had humbler roots, but they are still upper-middle-class Britons, so to refer to Kate as a "commoner" sounds demeaning in a way. If she's a "commoner", then what does that make the rest of us?!?
I was thinking the other day about what it is that I find so intriguing about the royal family, and I guess I can trace my interest in them back to when Princess Diana died. I vividly remember the day: I was 9 years old, we were up at the Lake for Labor Day weekend and I was in bed, sick as a dog. I remember hearing, even in my groggy state, someone exclaim from downstairs that Diana had died. From then on, I was a sponge, learning everything about the royals that I possibly could. I guess you could say that my interest in the royals was my gateway drug into my current People magazine-obsessed world. They were the first "celebrities" that I took a real interest in, and I suppose some of that had to do with the fact that I, like so many little girls, wanted to be a princess.
Molly and I are planning on having a sleepover the night before the wedding and waking up early to watch it, complete with a breakfast of homemade scones, strawberries and cream and English Breakfast Tea. I obviously wasn't alive for Charles and Diana's wedding, so I couldn't be more excited to watch this one. While the press has been attempting to unravel the truth about what will happen that day, frankly, I would prefer to be surprised (so hopefully they don't spoil it for me by digging up every last detail!).
Since I have seen so many ridiculous wedding-related things in the past few months, I thought I would post a few of them here for posterity's sake:
- People had a gallery of the most ridiculous wedding-related memorabilia
- The Kate Middleton doll's adventures around London
- The William and Kate Lifetime movie
- The T Mobile Royal Wedding ad
- Papa John's Royal Wedding pizza
- Dunkin Donuts Royal Wedding donut
- Royal Wedding-inspired food and drink
- Design-your-own Royal Wedding stamp
I'm sure there are more ridiculous things I'm missing, but I'll add in any more particularly humorous ones that I find!
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