Baby Showers.

So at work recently, I overheard some ladies discussing baby showers. One of the ladies was running late to a baby shower...on purpose. She knows I'm pregnant, so she said something like, "...no offense. I'm just not into them..." Ugh, who is???

That same weekend, a friend of mine was texting me from a baby shower she had to attend, and the text messages read something like this:
Get me out of here.
If I see one more ____ (replace with whatever common baby item you see at showers), I'm going to scream.
OMG, now they're passing the gifts around.

All I could do was rub it in. I've been to a few baby showers, and to be completely and honest, most of them were dreadful. I've thrown a few, and those weren't too bad. Not to pat me on the back or anything...no, really, they had nothing to do with me. One of the showers was really cool because the mom reminded me a lot of me. She didn't want the typical pink or blue ribbons hanging all over. Without giving her identity away, she had a very cool, earthy-type thing, and we didn't play goofy games. Another shower I hosted was actually a collaboration. I got together with a few other friends to try to do something special for someone who was new. All of her friends and family lived else where, and we were pretty much her only family. It was just a few girls and a lady we loved and honored getting together to say "congrats." Just friends enjoying each other's company. Even though we did play corny games, it wasn't all awkward because we could at least cross our legs...and it was, again, friends.

The thought of sitting in a room with people who don't know each other and who are awkwardly trying to make conversation with each other doesn't sit well with me. Not only that, but then you have to pass the gifts around and listen to everyone go, "Aawww" for the bazillionth time...that doesn't sit well with me either. Oh, then you're already uncomfortable because you're huge and hormonal, and you can't cross your legs because of some silly game? Ugh.

So what to do? I had dinner with some close friends recently, and they convinced me that this was part of allowing people to 'experience' this with me. That's fine and all (I'm just not that deep). But seriously, we should consider creativity when it comes to 'baby showers.'

Okay, and I think it's a sign - I continue to have dream after dream of going on amazing world travels. I think somebody should seriously consider sending me to an exotic island before beanie baby comes...who by the way is no longer a bean. According to babycenter.com, baby now weighs as much as an apple. Maybe it was around this time that Gwyneth Paltrow (sp?) decided to name her kid Apple. Glad I didn't stop at bean.