It’s begun. I turned 25 in July and with that birthday it seems I officially entered the stage of life where all my friends start getting married. I’ve heard 28 year-olds bemoan this predicament with spectacular eye-rolls. But like a kindergartener on her first day of school, I was excited when I got my first wedding invitation.

It was a wedding everyone had seen coming. The bride and the groom were college pals of mine, the relationship dating back (pun intended!) to their respective freshman and junior years. After surviving her study abroad semester and his graduation and subsequent move to New York City without so much as “a break”, it was clear they were in it for the long haul. In my single teenaged years (freshman and sophomore years of college), their compatibility and intense connection made me jealous. In my more recent (read: more mature, thank god) single years, it makes me hopeful. I never knew them before they were a couple, but being together seemed to strengthen them as individuals, an incredible rarity in college relationships. When my invitation arrived in the mail I giddily RSVPed and marked their wedding, August 28th, on my calendar.

Some things you plan madly in advance- like a wedding. Some things you can’t plan in advance- like a hurricane.

It’s like raaaain on your wedding day! We belted into the karaoke microphone, singing Alanis Morrissette’s classic “Ironic”. Only the next day, through the foggy eyes of the mandatory post-bachelorette party hangover, would I realize the true irony of my picking that song. The full realization not hitting until the day of the wedding. Unfortunately, realization was not the only thing that hit on the day of the wedding. So did Hurricane Irene.

Growing up in San Francisco, there are certain natural disasters I am totally prepared for. I knew exactly what to do during the strange east coast earthquake thanks to yearly drills of “Duck and Cover” (picture an entire classroom of students crouched under their desks.) Put me in a fire and I’ll “Stop, Drop, and Roll” all over it. But hurricanes were never covered. So when everyone and the person next to them on the subway started talking about Hurricane Irene, I didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t until rumors started flying of the entire New York public transportation system shutting down that I realized it was something serious.