Be a bridesmaid- Check!

(wasn’t my bouquet a dream?)

So much lies in that simple flourish: miles traveled, jokes shared, tears shed, dresses worn, vows declared, goodbyes said.

I know they say that the day passes in a blur for the bride and groom, but I feel as if I have suffered the same experience; distantly knowing, but unfelt in its full gravity that my friend is married. She is a wife.

As she was swept off into the start of her adventure, I underwent my own: Big Booty Judy and I went on our first roadtrip. On her part, she did splendidly. However, several attempts to thwart our plans came and in many forms. On the day we were destined for Ohio, it came in the guise of me taking the wrong shuttle bus from work and temporarily losing my phone, delaying the beginning of our journey and thus stretching our ETA into 2:20 in the morning (an hour I haven’t seen in a very. long. time).

In the return to DC, it came in a screw trying to hitch a ride in one of Judy’s tires and several elements joining us on our trek: rain, wind, and snow. Another late night arrival awaited me, which is the reason for which you are reading this post a day belated.

Despite it all, Judy and I made it safely in in one piece, which is really all I can ask. The icing on that is that I got to see so many people I love and spend literal hours with them.

This may seem a small thing amidst the splendor of a wedding, but my weekends in Ohio have been so crammed. I really haven’t gotten to sit and enjoy the company of family and friends beyond brief exchanges and breathless goodbyes for several months now. The impending fact has loomed in the back of my mind too that my trips to Ohio would be less frequent now that wedding endeavors are over (for now). All this to say, the conversations with my family over a cup of hot cocoa or with my friends over a bowl of white chicken chili was incredibly, incomparably precious to me.

Thank you, Emily and Richard, for allowing me to be a part of your day. Thank you, family and friends, for just being you.