Typical Me

“Oh God, how am I going to do this?” I thought to myself as I got up from the floor and the toilet for the third time that morning. My best friend and mom just looked at me, clueless.
It started around four a.m., well, actually, the night before. As soon as Tommy and I arrived at the beautiful church for our wedding rehearsal, emotions came over me like a flood. It was all I could do to make it through the rehearsal without crying, and I even had a stand-in-bride! My tears, I knew, were definite tears of happiness, but also nerves. I knew exactly what would fix these emotions. When we finally got to the rehearsal dinner, I took myself straight to the bartender, told her who I was and that I didn’t want my drink to get empty all night. She obliged, and by the end of the night, I would often find two drinks in my hand at a time!

As the night drew on, Tommy and I were showered with our favorite and most treasured gift of all. It was a wedding quilt, put together with stitches of love from squares made by friends and family, all of whom were there with us that night. After opening the quilt, then giving out special gifts, giving Tommy his groom’s gift, and me opening my gift from him, we realized it was almost midnight and our big day was just a few hours away. My departing gift from the bartender was a gallon of Absolut.

When Tommy dropped me off at my parent’s house, I realized this was the last time this would happen. I kissed my sweet husband-to-be goodbye and ran into the house with a new wave of energy. I decided to open all the gifts that we had gotten that night. My brother chased me around the kitchen, his arms following mine, as I threw open gifts of priceless crystal, china, and other breakables. My mom just looked on with amazement.

After going to bed, I awoke around four a.m. and could not get back to sleep, but I felt great. I knew my big day was here! My best friend had spent the night, so not wanting to wake her or anyone else, I got up and went into the living room and put in a movie. When everyone woke up around 7, I begged my mother to make me pancakes. Very unwillingly, as she had a house full of out of town guests coming over the next morning, she made the wonderful, yet messy, comfort food. One bite though, and I knew I was done. After the first two trips running to the bathroom, I thought, “I know what will fix this!” and a phenergan was sent down the spout. Typically, a pheneragan will put me to sleep for hours, this did nothing. After trip number three, I took another (typically putting me to sleep for the rest of the day). I knew this was no hangover – this was nothing but nerves.

My mother, while concerned, reminded me constantly, “Your bridesmaid’s luncheon is in an hour!” Heather, my best friend and a medical student, thought we should call the doctor. We did after trip number four. Of course, it was an answering service, so we left our number and waited patiently for the doctor to call back. After each trip to the bathroom, I would feel good for about 15 minutes, so I’d shower after one, put on make up after the other, hunt for the marriage license, and more fun stuff. The doctor, meanwhile, never called back! My mother, beyond mad now (she of course, thought I was hung-over), called her cousin, the local urologist. He, hearing the tone of her voice, called me in a wonderful little nerve medication. My father, who had not come back in the house since trip number one to the toilet, ran to the drugstore and back. My mom went on to the luncheon leaving Heather with me. After one dose of that wonderful little pill, I felt like a rock star – still pale, green and, sweaty, but felt much better.

Heather, the wonderful friend that she is, gathered my many bags for that day and even found the marriage license. We headed to the bridesmaid’s luncheon, but not before making a call requesting all food to be put away, for fear of sending me back to the bathroom. When we got there, my aunts, cousins, bridesmaids, and grandmothers clapped – I think they were honestly afraid I wouldn’t come! I found out later that they had all taken turns calling my Uncle Jimmy, because they were too scared to call my house, and would send him next door to ask my dad what was going on and to keep getting updates!

I was also greeted with a dozen gorgeous white roses from my sweet Tommy. I’m not sure if he’d planned to send them all along or not. Turns out, he had called my mom earlier that morning just to see how I was – we had made a pact not only to not see each other before the wedding, but also not to talk to each other, so that every part of our day would be a surprise. Well, he had slept great the night before and had gone to eat wings and play pool before heading to the church to get dressed. Not worried at all, he found it hilarious that all this was going on!

Finally at the luncheon, I gave out my gifts to my loved ones, letting them all know how truly special they are to me. Surrounded then with my best friends and family, and finally knowing that I would make it down the aisle to promise to my husband to love him forever, I knew that this truly would be the best day of my life.