A Year of Blogging: April 29, 2011

I would venture to guess all the world knows what today is. Not because it's Greenery Day or National Shrimp Scampi day. Today was the long anticipated Royal Wedding between Prince William and his sweetheart, Catherine. Catherine the Commoner as the news was calling her. That's just rude. I know things are different in England, and they still worry about class there. But here in the states, I thought calling her Catherine the Commoner was rude. I have to say, I wasn't interested in the Royal Wedding. I really think the 'news' (and I use this term loosely, because sending credible anchorwomen like Diane Sawyer to cover fluff stuff like a wedding is not news in my opinion) carried on about this too much. Every single night for the past week we've had an 'update' on the wedding. Tornadoes ripped apart much of the Southern US, and we're hearing about a wedding between two people we'll never meet. I couldn't help but wonder, if we were getting this much coverage in the US; what must it be like in the UK? I wasn't up at 4am this morning to watch it. I got to work and found I was about the only one who hadn't seen any of it. Even my male boss was carrying on about it. I just wanted to say 'bleah. Enough already!' So I wondered 'is there something fundamentally wrong with me?' Is there a key part of my femininity that is broken? When I came home tonight and scrolled through my FB posts, the majority of my friends had watched the wedding and commented on it. My sister had to go to Dallas on a business trip today, but she said she had taped it to watch when she gets home on Sunday. Some friends were over the moon excited about it. And I didn't give a damn. Really. I wasn't sitting here for weeks waiting to see what her dress would be like. I do think it's pretty (I have seen the endless reruns on the news tonight). I thought the dress was classic, simple, and elegant all at once. It is something I could see regular people wearing. But then again, she is a commoner so maybe that makes sense. I have a memory of sitting at Grandma and Grandpa Wager's house one summer watching another royal wedding. My sister and I crowded in front of the television, oohing and ahhing over this real life fairy tale. Thing is, I can't remember if it was Diana's or Fergie's wedding. Diana got married in 1981. I would have been 5. I don't know that my sister and I stayed at Grandma's for the summer when I was that young. Fergie got married in 1986. I would have been 10. It's possible it was her wedding. I think the last summer we went to Grandma & Grandpa's was the year I was 10. But whichever wedding it was, I remember being so excited about it. So what has happened in the 25-30 years since? I guess I grew up. I realized that's a fairy tale, and life is not about princesses and princes. And they are, underneath all the pomp and circumstance, just people. I wouldn't want their lives- the spotlights, the lack of privacy, the royal duties. They can have it. Their wedding has no impact on my life, and I think there has been much ado about nothing. People get married every single day. People have been getting married, without a third of the world watching, for centuries. You probably think I'm just a bitter divorcee. I don't think so, but maybe I am. I know lots of people who are happily married. For me, marriage wasn't pleasant, and I honestly have no desire to do it again. I don't see the point. My life is good the way it is. But I'm not against marriage. If it's what you want, then I'm happy for you. In fact, I'm going to my cousin's wedding in October. If I were against marriage, or hated weddings, I wouldn't make the 700 mile trip to be there. I could just as easily RSVP 'not attending' and everyone would understand- I live too far away. All this royal wedding coverage has just seemed so silly. I am all for putting some 'feel good' stories in the daily news to balance the crime and natural disasters- the things that get you down so quickly. The coverage of the wedding crossed the border into fluff. It wasn't necessary. And I for one, am thankful it's over. Of course, I may be the only female who feels that way. Although maybe not. I saw an online poll earlier this week that 73% of people didn't care about it at all. Yet there was this barrage of coverage from the networks. Maybe the networks need to listen to their viewers a little more carefully.