Bridesmaid: Kim

In the summer of 2001, I decided working at Talbots was pretty much hell. I just couldn't subject myself to another sale season! I figured that it would preserve my sanity and help my resume if I found a job working with kids. So, I contacted Debbie Platt at Country Garden Preschool and Daycare in Waterbury, CT. This program was actually run in my former church, Waterbury United Methodist. I made two great friends working there: Miss Dana and Miss Kim!

I don't believe it was until the following summer that met Kim. AND, it was not until the summer following that summer that we were both teaching the school-aged children program together. The school-aged children are the only children in the school that don't nap. That means, you have 8 hours to fill with entertainment and we unfortunately had very few resources to pull from. We came up with games, crafts, read alouds, and even produced a play! That's right, we wrote and produced our own adaptation of Katie DiCamillo's novel The Tale of Despereaux. We combined our talents and created EVERYTHING! Script, props, back drop, staging, etc.! I have to say, it turned out to be incredible. The kids memorized all of their lines and we had a great showing. Anyway, when you are spending that amount of time with someone, you can't help but bond!

Miss Kim (yes, I still call her that!) and I became friends outside of work. We have always had so much in common! Our deep love of theatre, music (especially fun bands!), and kids was just the start. As the years have gone by, our lives seemed to parallel one another. It turned out that Kim's aunt is Allison's mom's best friend and Mark's (Kim's fiancé) aunt is Allison's mom's OTHER best friend. I kept running into them at every party Allison's family had. Kim also graduated in December, so we commiserated over the lack of work for an education major and the joys of moving back home with the folks. We also went through the inevitable pain of the process of getting a full-time teaching position in Connecticut. We also went through the BEST program. Kim, of course, had it much worse than I did... but it was still terrible. AND THE BEST THING WAS... she moved 10 minutes away from my family's house.

Kim and her boyfriend of a million years, Mark Moriarty, got engaged several hundred years ago. I am more than excited to be apart of the wedding on October 11, 2008. Mark is one of my favorite of my friend's significant others and is one of my favorite guys. He is a lot of fun. I was really honored to be asked to be a bridesmaid. They make a great couple who are truly best friends. I was really giddy to invite Kim to be apart of our wedding party. I am really happy to have one of my favorite people in such an important role on the biggest day of my life.

And here is one last picture because "we look like we are having fun!"