This weekend I was invited to both a Baby Shower and a Bridal Shower. Yes, it was a first for me, and both of them were very sophisticated and set-up very grandly I must say. Still, for those who know me well, these girly things can be pretty intimidating. Saturday afternoon from 3:30 till 6pm was the baby thing. The pregnant lady herself was able to enjoy all the festivities while mother-in-law, friend of mother-in-law and friend Karin did all the food, the drinks, and the atmospheric details. A huge pile of gifts were stacked up in the living room (of which mine was missing of course because I was too late registering from the online wish list!). There was champagne, sparkling water with different tastes and fabulous finger food. The best of all was the massage therapist, hired to provide relief for those of us who get all stressed out from the baby and pregnancy talk … or at least, that’s why I did it! Thank heaven’s that Alison and Karin where there, so we could talk about non-mum stuff. But having said that, I was kind of relieved to have a hard-core training session awaiting at the gym that evening, in which the topic of conversations are bogged down to muscles, my trainers’ girlfriends and where to go for drinks that night. Very refreshing. Next day and an 18K bike ride later, I drove off to the Sammamish suburbs for Barri’s bridal shower. Late as I was, the ladies had just started the cake -which to me looked like a miniature wedding cake!- and were looking in anticipation at who was coming in, maybe hoping for the male stripper. Some of the crowd I know from work, and the others looked more at home in the setting of large house in the burbs, and I discovered later are mainly relatives of the groom to be. That wedding is going to be huge, and I’m very exited to see it all happening. Empty-stomached as I was when I arrived, I ate most of the left-over lunch delights and realized too late that the punch was pretty spiked. Guess that’s the one thing one can expect for even a ‘well-behaved’ pre-bridal do. All in all, the registry thing threw me off a little: am I not also going to give a big gift for the actual thing itself? But if you look at how much trouble people go through to organize these things, it makes sense, and it’s all well deserved of course. Just need to get out of the Dutch habits I guess: baby gifts after the baby is born, and dumping an envelope with cash on the day of the weddings. All-American culture observations. Hopefully I get to go to Vegas for somebody’s bachelors some time too! 
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