Hmmm.

It's official. I am the last one to reach the final growing up stage. On Saturday, my friends wedding dress came in. She looks absolutely beautiful.

I keep very few friends close to me and this is one of them. I have known her since 7th grade. I was always jealous of her because she was a better flute player than me. As we got older, we started to talk a little more. I was always quiet in school and she was one of the few people I spoke to. We survived drivers-ed together. She went off to college, I had a baby. When she got back from college, we just picked up where we left off. It was like she never left.

Since she works in sports management, you have to take what is given to you. That meant she was working in Indiana. On one of her visits back, she told me about this man she had met. She was only going to be in town for a couple of weeks and he was quite a bit older than her. She was interested in someone else at the time. But for some reason, she found him very interesting and all of her other friends were insistent that these two were together even though they weren't. They spoke a lot for the few weeks she was here. He took her on a date but she was clueless. She took her brother along with them. They continued talking while she was halfway across the county working. After a couple of months, he went out to see her and they came back together.

For the first time, I could see she was happy. She spent all fo high school (and some of the years after) with someone who didn't appreciate her. The man she will be marrying loves her. While they may argue, that is definitely clear to me. He makes her laugh and do happy dances. For that, he is amazing.

I can't help but to wish I was in the same place. I want to be the one wearing the white dress. I had given up hope for myself but now I have my own man who makes me do happy dances (even when I am not drinking). Lucky for me, this man is doing the same happy dance right beside me.

So, for now, I am just going to look on and smile at her. She deserves this and I am ecstatic that I get to be beside her while she goes through this experience.

And I also get to see a preview of Doodle in a penguin suit.