why do people not open gifts at showers/parties anymore?

I think there's a notion out there that is boring for guests to have to watch gifts being opened. Personally, I suspect this notion springs from guest who were bored by interminable gift opening by people who invited everyone they ever met to their shower/party. I also suspect people don't understand that the gift-er wants to hear them coo and smile over the giftee's present, rather than getting a badly written thank-you note.

::thinks of college friend who I didn't see/hardly heard from for years and who then invited me to THREE showers::

I think there's a notion out there that is boring for guests to have to watch gifts being opened.

This is why I want more people to do something like what some friends of mine did at their baby shower -- they had play-doh on the tables, and while they were opening, we were supposed to be sculpting their baby. It was the perfect thing -- enough distraction so it wasn't boring, but you could still see the things and hear the ooh/aah.

My shower is on Sunday. I think my mom is planning on having me open gifts with the individual who gave it before they leave, but I don't think we're going to do a big open all the gifts all at once thing. There are way too many people coming to the shower, imo, but I really didn't have anything to do with it. All of them are either friends that I see or talk to often, Mom's friends, and family.

Some gift opening is boring, but I enjoy seeing baby gifts. My cousin's shower on Saturday had no games (not that I'm complaining) and no gift opening. It was just a regular party, which would have been nice had I known anyone there other than my cousin and my aunt. And that's why I think you should open gifts - give people something to do as most of us don't know each other. Also, no one had any idea of when it was appropriate to leave. It got a little excruciating.

That Ensure was nummy.

I can see rationale behind dropping mass gift opening. It can be a big chunk of time. I like the idea Jesse talks about. Being expected to be engaged with great auntie's idea of a wonderful baby gift may be a bit much the third time round.

My top lip is twice its normal size. That's a big lip.

Resume question: how do you properly indicate different positions/levels at the same company? Write them out like separate jobs? I do that on my resume itself, but on the web forms it feels tight. So I end up putting the aggregate start-end dates and stringing the titles together. I hope it doesn't look crazy.

I think my mom is planning on having me open gifts with the individual who gave it before they leave

dooo eeet. Cooing over the gift and saying thank-you to the gifter means not having to write a thank you note!

I want a sort of upbeat rocker that the crowd will know but that's also unexpected. Any ideas????

Back in the early '90s, I did karaoke occasionally, and my most favorably received one was "Leader of the Pack," which was an end-of-the-evening number, and included several people pulled from the bar who were rather toasted, but willing shout "leader of the PACK!" in the background and make "vrrooom vrooom" noises.

I also once did "(I Can't) Breakaway" by Big Pig, which got me a "what the hell was that?" response by the DJ and a shout of recognition from one person in the audience.

dooo eeet. Cooing over the gift and saying thank-you to the gifter means not having to write a thank you note!

NSM. I am truly awful at remembering to do thank you notes, so my mother has already bought the thank you notes as a gentle reminder that it is expected of me this time.

I want a sort of upbeat rocker that the crowd will know but that's also unexpected.

I always seem to wind up doing Dusty whenever I do karaoke.

Well, keeping with the early MTV theme, there's always Pat Benatar.

I have no spoon, so I am eating cous cous with two wooden coffee stirrers. Not very successfully. And yogurt is next.

Today is not that good, really.