Dress dummy.

My cousin is getting married! My little cousin!

The one I kept trying to run away from on the cruise ship when we were little. The one who hid behind the den curtains and yelled "boo!" The one who got drunk on champagne at 6 and was discovered lying on our kitchen floor singing songs. The pearl-wearing, skirt-clad, stiletto-shod cutie who went to a granola college in the midwest and was dubbed "Audrey Hepburn" by her crunchy classmates. That one. Married.

Her parents are ecstatic. The young man is lovely. He has wonderful taste in music and is pleasant, kind, mature, funny and just adorable. And he doesn't seem to mind that my family is loud, silly and... loud.

The wedding date is set- a little over 6 months from now. I got the call today and I have been invited to be a bridesmaid! Woo-HOO! The church is booked, the rehearsal dinner is at a local joint we all love, the colors picked, the dress hunt is on.

And I have discovered that I am a whale. Seriously, at my annual physical I discovered that between last August and this I have gained 10 lbs. It feels more like 20, 30, 40, an entire supermodel. Ugh.

My calendar is full of dinners out- in the upcoming months I'm having dinner at a Polish restaurant, a new Indian place and a place that has great ceviche, but very rarely is there a big red circle around a day that contains any sort of exercise. There's no "YAY! GOING TO THE GYM!". Gotta work on that.

So yes, I am turning into one of "those" women. Which is funny because years ago I went to Bally's when I lived in Cambridge and I was mistaken for one of "those" women when I mentioned that I was training for an event.

Trainer Guy: "Cool. When's the wedding?"

Me: "Excuse me?"

TG: (Not even having the good grace to be embarrased) "You said you were training for an event."

Me: "Yeah, a triathlon."

TG: "Oh." (Still, no sign of remorse or embarassment. Jerk.)

So I will bike to work. I will start lifting heavy things on purpose. I will control my breakfast and lunch calories and be careful at dinner. I will fill out that form in Real Simple that tells me the ideal number of calories I should be eating. I will give in to my cravings occasionally and have that little dish of chocolate ice cream. I'll walk down hills and run up them. I will lay off the beer and go back to sharing entrees with friends. And come April I WILL be at least 2 sizes smaller.

Getting a date? Ech, now that's something to be really scared about.