Showers Galore!

Quite the weekend, I'll tell you. As a test of my manhood, I went to both a bridal shower and a baby shower this weekend. Actually, prior to Friday I had no intentions of going to either. But I talked to my friend Nikole (the recipient of the bridal shower) and she invited me and I decided to go not only to drop off a birthday gift for her (her birthday is April 11), but also to see some old SB people and meet some more of her family. Plus I hadn't seen her for a while and I love her mom and they had all sorts of Mexican food out. So I show up and I'm immediately close-pinned and warned not to say "Ryan" (her fiance) or "wedding" as I stand, the lone male, in a sea of forty or more females. I end up saying something about "should I jump in the cake now, or change first?" but actually I wasn't too uncomfortable. I mean Nikole and her mom made me feel very welcome, but I grew up with just my mom and grandma and I've always felt more comfortable with females than males. I have more close girl friends than guy friends (and about half of my guy friends are gay). Anyways, I left before all the games got started, but it was a good experience anyway. And my grandma called me Friday and asked if I could take her to my cousin's (Richelle's) baby shower because she didn't have a ride. I kinda wanted to go because I haven't seen Janine and her family for a long time and they had some really good food there too! So no complaints.

But then just to top off the whole thing, I got to spend the week with a pregnant woman as Pam (the teacher whose class I'm taking over) helped me transition into the role. So I heard a lot more about contractions, things expanding, lotions, baby clothes, and swollen feet (and mammary glands) than necessary. And of course some of the parents and kids organized a little baby shower for her at the end of Thursday. And she was so surprised! I love a good surprise. But I've heard enough about babies and weddings and the female body to last me through the month. Plus the play I'm working on deals with issues of violence against women. So yeah. You can imagine.

The play is going to be wonderful (if we can all learn our lines), but with school during the day, rehearsals totally kicked my butt last week. I was so tired. Getting home around 11 and trying to get anything done in the couple of hours of freetime becomes nearly impossible. And you know how bad I am at eating. I haven't been doing a good job at that. Or sleeping for that matter. I will say that being busy helps me stay positive and productive, but I need to get some food and energy too. We'll see if this week is any better. I'm all on my own now. We'll see how it goes. I was on my own Friday, but we had a field trip and there were parents everywhere so it didn't seem like it. Monday should be fun. I want to do something fun because it's not only my first real day on my own, but it's also my birthday. But I haven't come up with anything yet.

I've got to survive Easter first. If I don't talk to you before then...

!!!Happy Easter!!!