#79 The last single girl.
(Rebecca and I and her HUGE corsage)
It’s been such a long time since I saw my friend Rebecca, and I’ve been really excited about finally seeing her at her first bridal shower today. I met her mom and sister for the first time and Rebecca and I have been friends since my first week at Ole Miss, which was about 5 years ago. She and I kept running into each other because my apartment was just next door to her boyfriend’s, and we became fast friends over a conversation about her curious car tag (it read ‘K Ming’, her Chinese middle name). As the time passed, I came to room with 2 girls who were also accounting majors with Rebecca and we all more or less lived together that last year of college: 
(Me, Jennifer & Rebecca)
(Rebecca, me and Mallorie for my 22nd birthday in Memphis)
(Mallorie, me and Jennifer one 4th of July)
(our college friends at Mallorie’s rehearsal dinner)
One of them (Mallorie) met my cousin at my thesis show, and now they’re married and sharing a wall with our loft apartment. We still get to steal each others’ clothes and cook big breakfasts on lazy Saturdays. That’s neither here nor there, but I like to think of how we’re all so connected by each other. They were each conspirators, snapping photos and filming the whole thing when Ben proposed to me:
We’ve all been each others’ bridesmaids: 
(Rebecca, Mallorie and Jennifer in Nov. 2008 at our wedding, right before Mal caught the bouquet & my cousin Jim proposed)
(Then Jennifer and Benji got married in May…)
(Then Jim and Mallorie in August…)
And now Rebecca is the last one of us to walk the aisle. I was the first to become engaged, and I can remember being in her shoes not so long ago, feeling nervous and excited about our wedding, a little awkward at showers and showing as much visible excitement as possible over every last picture frame and towel. It was a really special time in my life and I can only imagine how exciting it is for she and Josh, especially since they’ve been a couple since high school. I miss my friend all the time and I hate that we’re separated by 5 hours (she’s an accountant in Memphis) and we’re both bad phone callers. I hope that someday when we all have kids us and the girls and our husbands who were all buddies in college will take a road trip to someplace kitschy — to see the Fountain of Youth or Rock City, maybe a beach trip in a caravan of big vehicles. It’s so good to have your girlfriends. I just hope we’ll always remember each others’ numbers and know it’s never too late to call and say “hello.”
(At one of our last Ole Miss football games all together as students. Ben proposed that weekend.)
