I hate, hate, HATE bridal/baby showers. Hate them. The combination of pre-feminist femaleness and unbridled consumerism just skeeves me right out. Not my cup of tea.
Luckily I only have one group of friends who is into these things, and they’ve all gotten married. After the last shower I vowed never to attend another.
Of course, I hadn’t counted on the BABY showers. The first one is in a few weeks.
I called in my regrets, which is a funny way of putting it because I would have regretted going more than I do staying away. I’m not going because I know I will have a miserable time. The event is held in the middle of Buttfuck, York Region, and I don’t have a car, so I can’t even pop in for an hour - I’m at the mercy of whoever can drive me to/from the subway (which itself is a million miles from my house, so even if I only went for an hour it would be an entire afternoon’s commitment). Plus, the friend with whom I normally attend these things, who hates them as much as I do and with whom I usually down a fifth of whiskey before entering the party, is not going.
All in all I can think of few less pleasant ways to spend a September Saturday afternoon.
Now. Another member of this group of friends has planned a trip to the cottage for that weekend, which I found out after I had decided not to go.
Consider:
- The husband of the showeree will be attending the cottage so there’s no way she won’t know that I skipped her shower to party with our friends
- Two other women are skipping the shower in favour of the cottage, but while I have known the showeree for 15 years, they are new girlfriends of our shared guy friends and have only known her for a few years
- The showeree knows I hate showers, but at the same time I know they mean a lot to her
- I’ll still get her a present
Now, how wrong is it for me to go to the cottage?