If anyone is reading this blog you will notice that it has been almost a year since our last post. I really don't have a very good reason for going silent other than I let life get in the way of my writing, and I was busy licking my wounds. Meridith, on the other hand, was planning the event of her life. Meridith got married on June 13, and let me tell you it was an event. And I had a ringside seat. . . as a bridesmaid.
Which is a miracle in and of itself because I don't do the bridesmaid thing. I don't really do the wedding thing. So many weddings just seemed so forced and contrived, and then you have to eat bad food and talk to the bride/ groom's distant relations from some state that you never ever want to visit. Let me say Meridith and Jim's wedding was nothing of the sort. 
The way that Meridith announced her engagement to me was with a picture text of her ring and these words- "I promise your dress won't be ugly." She totally kept her promise on that one. But as the day approached I was still nervous about the whole thing, I mean there were six bridesmaids. I kept having visions of the wedding from Steel Magnolias. I am mean, sure, I knew her colors weren't pink and pink, but I was still nervous. There was a moment on the day of the wedding when all the bridesmaids, and the mother of the bride, and a cousin, and a long time family friend, and the videographers where all crowded in Meridith's apartment. All the bridesmaids were in pink robes, including myself. I looked like a pink nightmare, and I had already offered the vidoegrapher, James, fifty bucks to keep the camera away from me, but I digress. We were helping each other with makeup and doing each other's hair. Looking around the room, I had the passing thought - "I know now why I was never a sorority girl." At one point I was in my pink robe taking mini quiches out of the oven, and I thought to myself "I must really love that girl" as I looked over at Meridith getting her hair done. Don't it ever let it be said that I can't or won't function out of my comfort zone for those I love. The pink robe and the quiche and my job involving a glue gun are proof of that.
And I do love her. I said a prayer that morning in the midst of the craziness while dressed in my pink robe that I would have a moment with Meridith that day. A moment that would say all that needed to be said, and she would know how much I loved her and how happy I was for her. This was a tall order as neither one of us is given to weepy sentimentality.
But that moment did come on the West Side Highway of all places. We were headed downtown to meet the groom and groomsman for pictures , and poor Meridith had to recline back in the front seat of the SUV in order to be able to breathe in her amazing dress. I was chatting up the driver when Meridith said to him "Would you turn this up:" It was the opening melody to "Where the Streets Have no Name." The tears immediately came to my eyes. I slide my arms around Meridith and just held her as Bono sang, and we sang with him "....I want to tear down the walls that hold you inside/ I want to reach out and touch the flame/ where the streets have no name. " I knew that this was our moment. I silently blessed her and Jim and just loved her.
All I wanted to say was wrapped up in that moment. And I think it communicated. I hope so because I didn't do so well when the vidoegraphers asked me for words of wisdom for the couple. I give myself a solid C on that interview. I don't really know anybody who can dispense wisdom at the drop of the hat when they are hungry and their feet hurt, well maybe Gandhi and Mother Teresa, but I am certainly not in that company. But I definitely should have mentioned on film how much I appreciate Jim. I choked when they asked me what I like about Jim, and I will tell you why. To answer that question actually says something very personal about me. What I like about Jim is that he loves Meridith in all her grandness and her big personality and is not intimidated in the least. Jim gives me hope that there are more men like that out there, and I should not give up. I am also pretty convinced that Jim is actually a superhero of some sort. You know, lawyer by day, Gotham super hero by night. He just has this quiet confidence to him that makes me wonder. And Jim is the kind of man that when sitting in a bar late on Saturday night and I expressed a desire to go to the Whitney Museum, he quietly got on his Blackberry and looked up the information for me. That is the kind of guy he is.
All in all the wedding was amazingly rich and grand. I am self-professed nit -pick, really I am, but I would not have changed a thing. Not even holding Meridith's dress when she had to pee. This wedding changed my mind about weddings. It was an amazing celebration, and I am honored that I got to be a part of it.
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