Here comes the bridesmaid

Last Thursday morning, my best friend, Bruna texted me.  This is not out of the ordinary.  Our friendship has almost always been long distance, so e-mails, IMs, texts and facebook messages have been our source of communication.  This conversation, however, was one I'll never forget.

Her: Are you near a computer? I need you to look something up for me.

Me:  Not yet. Give me about 20. ((I was out delivering newspapers to the schools as I do on Thursdays.))

Finally...in the promised time, I texted her back.

Me:  Ok. I'm back in my office. What's up?

Her:  Go to www.foreverbridals.com and search for style 76216.

((pause....long pause...my work computer wouldn't cooperate, so I had to find another machine to use))

Me:  Ok. I'm there. It's pretty.

Her:  Will you wear that dress and be a bridesmaid in my wedding?

My face split into a huge grin.  Naturally, I agreed and conveyed my excitement as best I could via text.  She filled me in on what color the dress and ribbon would be and that she needed my measurements by May 1. (Goodbye pizza. Goodbye oreos.  Goodbye fast food.)

I cannot wait. I have never been in a wedding, and while there's a lot of physical distance between us, I consider Bruna to be one of my closest friends. I'm so honored to be a part of her big day.

Bruna and I have been friends for 12 years, and we have a bond so tight we refer to each other as "Sis."  Believe it or not, we met online, in one of the old IRC chatrooms, where the screen looked like this. 

Ancient, right? 

We would chat for hours on IRC and then on ICQ and eventually MSN Messenger.  Sometimes, we even gave up sleep so we could talk and dream together. We used to talk a lot about our future weddings, and including each other in the wedding party was a given.  Of course, back then, we were going to marry our respective favorite member of N Sync, and we were going to live in the same neighborhood so we could hang out and our numerous children could play together while our husbands went on tour.



Bruna and I took a spontaneous roadtrip to Louisiana in the summer of 2003 to see her love, Justin Timberlake.


Things have changed since then. N Sync hasn't toured in almost a decade.  Lance is gay (destroying my dreams of marrying him). ICQ is long gone and Facebook has been born.  Even my friendship with Bruna has changed a little ... but it hasn't broken. We still have a great deal of love and care for each other, but we've had to grow up.  We each have full-time jobs and responsibilities which make it impossible to spend all evening and night chatting (although I really miss those chats and the carefree days that accompanied them).  We don't talk as often as either of us would like to, and we live much further apart. So we're still best friends, but it's a different kind of best friends.

She's been engaged for several months, and since she didn't immediately ask me to be in her wedding I assumed she'd chosen other people to stand beside her.  And I was ok with that.  Truly. I haven't even met her fiance yet (hoping to remedy that in May), and I wouldn't blame her for wanting bridesmaids who were closer by to help her with the little details.  So I was thrilled to be asked.  I cannot wait to put on the pretty dress she picked out and support her as she marries the love of her life  --- and, even though I haven't met Shay yet, trust me, he is.  I mean, he's unseated Justin Timberlake as number one in her heart.  That's not an easy feat, folks.  I just know Shay must be amazing. 

This will be the first time I've ever been in a wedding. I've never been to a bachelorette party either, but maybe, just maybe, I'll get to cross that off my list sometime this year too.  Should be a fun ride!