I love Richard Scarry. I remember being in the 2nd grade and hiding in corners in the school lunch room with the big Scarry books. I was too well-supervised in the 1st grade to get away with it.

I loved Richard Scarry as a child. We will have to get Ryan some books, once he's reading on his own at least. We picked up the DVDs in Shanghai airport. (Biyi, of course, had no idea why I was so excited to see them.) They've rapidly become Ryan's favourites.

It's a baby shower so I'm currently wearing a clothespin on my shirt. I hate shower games. There are so many presents here to open that games are really unnecessary.

I'm sorry about your aunt, sj.

I'm with you, erika. I despise showers. Baby showers maybe even more than bridal showers. I'm happy to give a gift, but the forced festivities make me tired and irritable.

sj, I'm so sorry.

The games are a key part of the tradition, sj. Like how marriages aren't official until someone has done the Chicken Dance.

I'ma sit by Erika and Zen on my general feelings on showers, though. I hate them in general and specific, and I'm additionally pissy about them at the moment because I am obligated to go to Another Fucking Baby Shower on a weekend where I was going to be doing something much more fun (previously mentioned Perseid Road Trip). I hate that showers are exclusively female enterprises; I hate the stupid-ass games ("enforced fun" if every such a thing existed); I hate the twee-as-hell heteronormative/traditionalist assumptions. I hate the whole fucking thing.

Personally, I think showers are THE WORST, at the risk of sounding like Miranda-Hobbes-Has-A-Terrible-Accident. But I do hate them

I can't stand them. I don't begrudge the shower-ee's happiness, not one iota. But the games and the passing around of every present (I think Shrift described it once as "Why am I smelling soap?") and the general wittering just drives me nuts. It's not my thing.

sj, I'm sorry that your grief is compounded by shower shenanigans. I once went to a shower where you wore a little mini-diaper thingy on your shirt, and then you unfold them and whoever has a fake poop stain wins a prize. For realz.

Can I get some health~ma for my sis? She's had (whitefont for gross) diarrhea for a couple of weeks now, and may need to have a biopsy (she has ongoing intestinal issues). She's lost 10 lbs.

I slept twelve hours and my headache is gone (yay) but I missed a nail trim appt for Frankie (boo) but rescheduled for 1 pm (yay). Sooo much to do today. Gonna run out of weekend again.

Do you really become ostracized from your social circle if you refuse to particpate in showers? Can't you just drop by, hand the present over, kiss the victim/bride/mother-to-be, then plead an important last-minute appointment out of town?

In my family that would not work.

And the fake "sexy" jokes.(It's not like I don't want to to come to your party, and, hell, I studied anthropology, I know how important a good rite is.But it totally feels like going back through the wormhole to Peggy Oleson's time, or something.) It doesn't help that the last few were not for close friends...for someone you really love, you want to do stupid things to make them happy, I suppose, but it's different for women you don't know on that level. And, no, I'm not jealous. I think I won a candle in the fake-stain contest. Very proud moment.