< by Jill >

Here are some highlights from the past few days:

• I received so many last-minute cancellations for the engagement party that it had to be cancelled altogether.

• Nate’s Valentine’s Day gift got stolen.

• I got food poisoning (and commenced my lifelong campaign against Pret a Manger — I’ll take my sandwiches WITH preservatives, thank you.)

I’m sure it’s every bride’s dream to barf into a Walgreen’s bag in the lobby of the historic mansion where she may one day be wedded. I’m sure it’s every groom’s dream to lug an ailing waif from one appointment to the next, braving the possibility that whatever it is, it might be contagious.*

Sarcasm aside, I’d wager that most people — even the most secular among us — pray that we’ll be adequately prepared for marriage. We pray to be fitted with all the skills and wisdom to navigate conflicts. To be fortified against whatever mayhem may come our way. But I can really only speak for myself when I say: Deep down, a part of me is always praying that I won’t have to confront the bad stuff.

In more than two years together, neither Nate nor I have ever come down with any noteworthy illness. But this weekend, the good Lord allowed an opportunity to practice the “in sickness” clause. Nate gets an A+. He sang me songs, made me laugh, and supplied me with a sturdy bedside bucket. This isn’t the stuff of Disney movies, but I’m almost certain it’s the stuff of successful marriages.

And it’s the stuff of this week’s theme: love stories.

*It’s not contagious. It’s Pret a Manger. Never eat there.