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some eyebrow plucking, Natalie, “the bride-to-be,” has finally dozed off, and I’m sitting here in front of my computer trying to make some sense of my life. But it seems I can’t.
    Okay, there’s one thing I learned tonight. I think Caitlin is on to something. Here’s the deal. I had what I thought could be an excruciatingly painful evening to get through, and I could’ve done it in my usual complaining sort of way. But following Caitlin’s example, I decided to take the “high road.” I did an attitude adjustment, put on a smile, and guess what? It wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was actually sort of fun.
    And—I reminded myself—after tonight, Nat will be a married woman, and we won’t really be having times like this anymore. Okay, as weird as that sounded atfirst, after it sunk in, it really made me kind of sad. Now, as Nat is snoozing, I’m thinking about how I’m going to miss my best friend. Even though she’s been a royal pain lately, I really do love her. I really want the best for her life. And so, after we were sort of done for the evening, I told her that I wanted us to pray together.
    “Pray together?” She blinked in surprise. “You and me?”
    “Yeah…I want us to pray for you and Ben. For the wedding tomorrow and for your future and for the future of your unborn child. Is that okay?”
    “Of course.”
    And so we prayed. And it was really sweet. When I finished, Nat told me that it was the best bachelorette party ever. Of course, I wondered what she could really compare it to, but I didn’t mention this. Still, as I sit here writing in my diary, I have to wonder how it’s going to go with Nat and Ben. Oh, I don’t mean the wedding. Knowing Caitlin, it will probably go smoothly enough. I mean what comes after the wedding. What then?
    Nat said that Ben found them a little place to live. It’s downtown, close to his work, but she’ll have to ride a bus to school. His parents helped him with the rent deposit as well as some of the other starting expenses. But that ends now. “But with his job,” she assured me, “we’ll probably be okay.”
    I didn’t ask her about things like health insurance or baby expenses. I mean, what do I know about things like that? Still, my practical side wonders. But it’s thenight before her wedding…why should I be the one to rain on her parade? Especially when I already know that tomorrow’s forecast is for “scattered showers”?
Sunday, September 24
    Well, at least it didn’t rain yesterday. And all things considered, I guess the wedding went fairly well. It was a little unnerving when Natalie’s wedding gown was too tight to zip, but with some help from Caitlin and Steph, we finally managed to fit her into it.
    “But you’d better get right out of it after the reception,” Steph warns Nat.
    “Will it hurt the baby?” Caitlin asked with concern.
    Steph laughed. “No, but she might split a seam.”
    Caitlin’s grandmother-in-law did a nice job on the flowers. Even nicer than a florist, I was thinking as Cesar and I got in place to take our walk down the aisle. The music was playing, and I could see Ben standing up there by Josh. And although Josh was smiling and looking fairly comfortable with what was his first wedding, Ben looked like a lamb on his way to the slaughter. Seriously, he looked like he’d give anything to be anywhere but here. Even as Cesar escorted me down the aisle, I half expected Ben to make a mad dash for the nearest exit. But somehow he stayed in place. Maybe Josh had superglued his feet to the floor.
    The crowd was small. Maybe forty, or even less. Just close family members and friends from church. I wasglad that my dad came. He’d been saying he wasn’t sure. And he’d even politely declined Natalie’s invitation to walk her down the aisle. Fortunately she had an uncle who was willing.
    Then the bridal march music began, and Natalie and her uncle started coming down the aisle. And to my surprise, I began to cry.