I Saw the Queen at the Palliser Hotel in 1990

Queen Elizabeth looks so familiar. Well, no wonder. I've been licking the back of her head for years, until e-mail put a big damper on letter-writing. But still.

In 1990, Her Majesty visited Calgary. Not being on the guest list for any of the official functions, I waited for HM to call me up for a little girlfriend dog-walking time. Still waiting.

My friend Pat was in town for a conference, staying at the Palliser Hotel. So, that's where we had dinner, in the least hoity of the hoity-toity restaurants there. (And I say this with great envy of those who eat there often.) It was lovely.

Pat said the Queen was staying at the Palliser too. After dinner, we saw the Palliser's hand-picked crew of red carpet roller-outers rolling out the red carpet in the lobby. Hmmm.

Much waiting. Apparently Her Majesty was at a state dinner with our then-mayor, His Worship Al Duerr, and a host of other dignitaries. (Another invitation lost in the mail.)

In the beautiful Crystal Ballroom behind us, the Palliser's Crystal Ballroom specialists were just finishing polishing the silver for a big charity ball, unrelated to the Queen's visit, but with an inevitable overlap in the guest list. (Now that's one I could have had an invite to, were I not so cheap.)

We waited, Pat and I, thinking the Queen would only be able to handle so much local colour before rising to end the state dinner. Eventually, people in formal wear started coming in – walking on the Queen's red carpet, even. Turns out that another friend, let's call her Donna, was one of these lovely charity ball-goers.

Donna stopped to chat for a while, and to wait for the Queen with us.

More eminent Calgarians pranced by and then, at last, there was a bit of a buzz in the crowd by the door. The Queen? The Queen? No, it was Mayor Al Duerr in full mayoral regalia. A very nice man and a friend of Donna's.

His Worship stopped to say Hi to Donna. Donna, however, had to let him know the score, and said, "Get out of the way, Al. We're waiting for the Queen." And being such a nice man, Mayor Duerr smiled and got out of the way.

Wait, wait, wait. We were ladies in waiting, all right.

And then, every Canadian coin I've ever tossed came to life before my eyes, for it was she. A petite, in fact very short, woman passed us by on the red carpet. I could have touched her. (But wouldn't because that's bad manners.) Her diamond tiara sparkled, her queenly gown rustled, and she fairly glided with perfect posture. Regal, one could say.

The Queen looks exactly like she does on a stamp.