E and Steve's Wedding

Today is an emotional day for me.
My best friend is getting married to a wonderful man in the Outer Banks and I can't be there.
Elizabeth is a very special person in my life. Without her friendship, I don't think I could have survived high school. She was always my "cool" friend, the one who went off to a big city to go to art school, who introduced me to finer things in life that I didn't know existed outside our zip code in suburban Iowa. For some reason, she thought I was interesting enough to have as a friend and in return, she became my accomplice on many bold outings, like when we decided it would be funny to dress up weird and attend the International Model Search that came to town (see photo) or when we got in big trouble for our senior yearbook pictures at our Catholic high school because we wore 1960s Goodwill dresses and Cleopatra eye shadow. We also did more heady stuff, like go on spiritual retreats and became counselors at my beloved Catholic Youth Camp. She even tagged along in college when I decided to do RAGBRAI and rode our bikes across the state of Iowa, me chasing a really stupid boy. Over the years, when we lived in our separate cities, we had infamous wine dates on tbhe phone where we would discuss our relationships at the time. No one in my life has had more boyfriends than Elizabeth. No one has had more BAD relationships than Elizabeth. The fact that she finally met Steve, someone who is normal, churchgoing and who thinks she walks on water is nothing short of a divine miracle. I am shedding many tears of joy today, feeling incredibly happy for my best friend and for Steve. Congratulations to both of them! I hope they are as happy as Mike and I are!!!