My Sister’s Baby Shower
My younger sister had her baby shower this weekend. Little baby boy, David, is due mid-August. My 6 year old niece is very excited to have a baby brother and is already very protective of her little bro. She’s been telling my sister not to eat peanut butter in case baby David is allergic. How thoughtful! ;o)

My mom sent me a bunch of pictures of the shower on Saturday evening. I haven’t seen my sister in almost two years, and I don’t know if I just forget the details of her face or what, but I found I was taken aback. It seems that the circles beneath her eyes appear to get darker with every passing year.

Actually, sister has looked exhausted since she was about 16 years old. I think part of the reason is because she has lived a much harder life than I. I’ve always found it so wild that we grew up in the same little house, sharing the same cramped little bedroom throughout our formative years, and yet we have turned out so completely different.

Like many siblings, we didn’t get along so well as children… Ha! Actually, that might be the understatement of the year. The truth is we couldn’t stand each other. And much like two strangers living beneath the same roof, we really didn’t know each other either. At age 13, she was getting drunk and tripping on acid, while I was hanging out with our Grandpa and working at the church camp he founded. Everyone used to marvel at how we were totally night and day.

Of course, with time and circumstance, sister has mellowed out. She is a different person since having my little sweetheart of a niece, getting out of her abusive relationship and marrying her clean cut (but excessively hyper) military husband.

Now as adults we’ve started to reform a bond… even a friendship… on a new level. And while we’ll always be polar opposites, we completely ‘get’ each other now, like I think how sisters should.


My Friend’s Baby Shower
Also taking place across the country this weekend, one of my old friends from high school had her baby shower. Little baby girl, Quinn (I love that name!), is due to arrive sometime next month. One of my friends who attended the shower laughed that this is the first time she’s ever gone to a baby shower in the afternoon and then out for drinks with the mom afterwards. You don’t get to say that too often.

No one ever expected L to have kids. She hated the buggers. When we were seniors in high school she actually made her 24 year old boyfriend (who really wanted kids) go in search of a doctor who would fix him, so she didn’t have to take the pill anymore. Crazy, huh? It took him a while, but he eventually found someone who would do the procedure. We were all like, “Holy crap L! I hope you plan on marrying him!!!” And a couple years after high school, they did get married…. And then a couple years after that, she came out of the closet, and they got a divorce. L coming out of the closet really came as no surprise to anyone… well, except for him. Yeah… it was a messy, messy break-up and she’s still paying alimony today.

Eventually L fell in love with J and the two of them got married on the ice in a hockey arena after a game. (It was appropriate since the two girls met through hockey.) J reallllly wanted children, and so L agreed. L told me, “I know I must really be in love this time if I’m willing to have kids with her.”

It was a long and expensive process with a few complications, but after a couple years, J finally got pregnant. What I found kind of cool was that before J was artificially inseminated, the doctors took some of L’s eggs and put them in her, so they won’t know which of them the baby came from. I asked L if they were going to take turns and if she would have their next one… Maybe if hell freezes over she will. Ha.

Bro's Stag
J went to his Bro’s camping stag this weekend. For a few years now, J has told me that he doesn’t feel he has anything in common with his old friend from middle school, N. In fact, J wonders if they ever did have anything in common to begin with? J is an artist. N is a jock. J likes to chill. N likes to party. I honestly don’t know what the heck they have in common either, except for a common group of friends.

N was at the stag this weekend, and he’s the kind of guy that when he’s drinking, he transforms from a fairy intelligent, nice-enough (but still very macho) guy into the most obnoxious, immature, over-the-top macho SOB to ever walk the green earth. One of his most obnoxious qualities is that he LOVES to push people’s buttons and doesn’t know when to stop… there have been situations in the past where *I* have even fantasized about hauling off and punching him in the mouth. Part of his macho personality is that he also likes to wrestle and he once broke my glass coffee table and never reimbursed me for it. He still laughs and thinks that’s sooo funny. Argh! Now I’m fantasizing about punching him again… Okay, think happy thoughts… think happy thoughts.

That being said, I think this weekend J reached the point where he is done questioning why they are friends, and instead is actually hoping that this useless friendship will fall to the wayside. Even if N isn’t drinking – it just isn’t worth the effort.

It was more than N trying to peer pressure J to get drunk. (Which he always does.) It was more than N’s desire to wrestle, and how a few chairs got broken. (Which I’m sure no one will be reimbursed for either.) It was more than the loud, non-stop swearing and X-rated talk that caused neighbouring campers with young children to complain. (I’m confident if the tables were turned and it was N and his little girl camping alongside a rowdy stag party, he would DEFINITELY be complaining too.) It was more than N constantly farting in people’s faces. (In all the years I’ve been with J, he’s never even so much as accidentally farted in my presence once… He’s just not one of those kinda guys who find farting funny.) It was more than N sh*tting in the lake and then throwing the football near the sh*t and not telling people what he had done until afterwards. (Umm… yeah… how old are we? And again, if N had his daughter at the beach, I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate someone taking a dump a few feet away from her.) It was more than that, and it was all of that, combined with a history of a bumpy friendship that has left J feeling unfulfilled and wishing he could end it, but not knowing how.

It all came to a head when J and our friend RM were talking to each other about how they had no interest in wrestling and how they thought some of the guys should tone it down before they got kicked out (because they were almost asked to leave by the ranger twice). N heard J and RM talking and then yelled at them, “It’s a f*cking stag! It’s a f*cking stag! Just chill the f*ck out! If you don’t f*cking like it, maybe you shouldn’t have arranged a camping trip.”

Safe to say, J told N off in such a way that he clamped right up, and soon stormed off to his tent in a huff to pout for the rest of the night. The next day, N was b*tching to a few of the others about J behind his back. He vented about how they just have nothing in common. Hmm… Nothing in common, eh? Well, all I have to say (and I’m sure J would agree) is THANK GAWD for that!!!

GF's Stagette
While the boys were out swimming in feces and farting in each other’s faces, Saturday was GF’s Stagette. We were all asked to dress up glamorous and then go to the Bingo Hall and Casino, where we would have dinner and then play electronic Bingo. R, the wife of one of the guys who was also attending the stag, came over to my place to hang out. I’ve known R for quite a few years, but we’ve never hung out one-on-one before. I have to say, just chatting with her for hours n’ hours on end was a greater highlight than playing (a.k.a. losing at) Bingo. We chatted from 2:00 in the afternoon until we had to be at the Bingo hall at 5:00. Then once the evening of Bingo ended around 9:00, R came back to my place to sleep over and we sat there in our flashy glamorous dresses, chatting until 2:00 in the morning. It was nice.

It wasn’t like surface talk either… I actually learned a lot about her. It was interesting to see where she came from, what she’s experienced in her life, and what makes her tick. It really made her into a more three-dimensional person than the R I’ve known for the last few years. Of course, we didn’t only talk about ourselves… I actually got some new insights on other people in our group. Not exactly gossipy stuff -- but another perspective than what I’ve been privy too. For instance, I didn’t realize that N’s wife, L, seriously struggles with parenting their two year old daughter. R told me it is because N undermines everything L teaches her… if L says “no”, N says “yes”. He also encourages their little girl to always talk back to L, because you know, it’s just oh-so funny and cute to see a two year old scream at their mother to “go away”. (Of course, I’m sure after reading the stag story above, none of this should come as a surprise. I just wasn’t aware of it… I knew their little girl could be a real handful, but didn’t know it was a direct result of her father being on the same maturity level… s’pose that makes sense though, doesn’t it? Oh yeah, and N & L just announced that they’re preggers with number two. Weeee!)

Anyhow, it was really nice to get to know R better. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with her one-on-one again.