Things I learned from my (delightful) baby shower

We had a lovely baby shower yesterday, and I've been smiling to myself all day today reviewing the experience. Maybe I'm just feeling meaning-of-life oriented lately because I'm in the process of making a life, which tends to bring out one's inner philosopher, but I just keep realizing lessons lately. So, here's what I learned from my (delightful) baby shower:


1. Be Open and/or Let It Go:


As is often the case in my life, I had a whole vision about what our shower would be like right down to the smallest details, and how I would prepare for it. I've never actually been to a baby shower before, but I had lots of ideas from past parties and finding inspiration online, and I wanted everything to be just so. I had a total vision of myself cleaning and setting up with just the right music playing, getting ready and picking my outfit, and then being a hostess. Except that I sprained my left sacroiliac joint (with the help of 20 lbs of baby, uterus, various fluids and my mommy padding) a few days before the party. In spite of a fairly successful initial chiropractic adjustment and liberal icing, I was physically incapable of some pretty basic tasks like bending down to use a dust pan, let alone climbing up to hang the back drop for the "photo booth" our wonderful friends Eric and Ibby, of Rzescotti Photography brought to the party.

Now, me from a few years ago (ok, me from not so many months ago) probably would have just done it all anyway, but I'm starting to get that there's actually no prize for unreasonable self-sacrifice and stoicism, in spite of all that my puritanical New England upbringing might have me believe. So, I called my sister, who drove into town from college in Maine just to attend the shower, and asked her if she would come over and help me. This was huge. I don't ask for help, particularly not when I've got a vision or something I'm trying to accomplish that I believe requires my total creative control. But, guess what? She was fantastically helpful, from holding the dust pan to teetering on one of our kitchen chairs with a hammer and a mouthful of finishing nails to hang the photo booth back drop, and we ended up having a wonderful time together getting ready for the party that we wouldn't have otherwise had.

Some things didn't happen exactly as I had envisioned. For example, the rug in the hallway didn't get vacuumed, but it turned out that there were so many people happily squished into our apartment that you couldn't really see the floor anyway. We didn't clean the porch, but it was such a sunny day, and we don't have the screens up yet because it still freezes some nights, that it was too hot for people to sit out there at our fantastically cute cafe table (as per my vision). What did happen is that we had a lovely shower, and I got to spend some extra time with my wonderful sister, which is precious indeed because we're both so busy with our burgeoning adult lives.

2. College Students Are Really Thirsty


We had about four times as much soda, seltzer, juice, beer and wine as we actually needed. I think this happened because most of my more recent party beverage buying experience has been for small dinner parties with friends where it's obvious that a couple of bottles of wine will suffice. My only other point of reference for party beverage buying is parties in college, and no matter how much liquid enjoyment was provided, we always ran out and had to get more. I guess it's time to re-calibrate. And, since we've got a refrigerator full of soda, maybe I'll be able to try out this cake recipe I've been meaning to try.