Weekend update

I had one of those weekend where I had a lot of stuff going on, overcommitted myself, then ended up ditching out on a few things and feeling guilty about it later. In general, I try never to be one of those "Yeah, I'll come to your party!" people who say yes to everything with no intention of fulfilling those promises, because I hate those schmucks. I mean, if you aren't going to show up, just say so, and that's fine. Insincerity is so unbecoming. This weekend, I was one of those schmucks. I bailed on two holiday parties and one Harry Potter moviethon, mostly due to the birthday party, the soccer game, and the bridal shower that I did go to lasting longer than I had anticipated. Well, lesson learned, in the future, I will be better at saying no to things when I know it is unlikely I will be able to attend, and I'll try not to feel guilty afterwards, because it's pointless. That whole Big Catholic Guilt thing is no joke (and an awesome band name...when I worked a Genzyme we had a long-running debate in the lab over which was worse, Catholic guilt or Jewish guilt. Catholics have the whole nuns and priests instilling guilt thing, whereas no one dishes it out quite like a Jewish mother. The ruling was that until there's a band named Big Jewish Guilt, Catholic guilt wins.) and I know it's silly to feel irrational guilt about things that aren't a big deal, but I can't help myself.

Anyways, here are a couple of observations I made over the weekend:

1. Okay, this is kind of weird, but sometimes when I'm riding the bus, I survey the other passengers and wonder what would happen if we were all trapped on a desert island together. Who would be the leader? Who would have useful skills? Whom would I have a crush on? Saturday, I left the lab and hopped on the #1, sometimes referred to as the T.B. Express (with good reason: exposure to a phlegmy cough with each paid admission!), and looked around. I saw lots of shady characters, including a drunk bum that kept randomly yelling out things like "I'm gonna kick your ass!" and two drag queens (not that all drag queens are shady, but these two were), and I thought "Man, if I get stuck on a desert island with these people, we're all screwed." But hey, you never know, maybe the drag queens would be skilled fishermen and the drunk bum would figure out how to make liquor out of coconuts, providing diversion for the rest of us.

2. Here's the part of this post where I go on a rant about bridal showers. If you're reading this and I attended or helped throw your bridal shower, I don't mean your bridal shower, which was lovely, just bridal showers in general. All I'm saying is that if I ever get married, there's no way I'm having one. They strike me as too much....soooo many gifts make it seem materialistic instead of the joyful celebration of an upcoming marriage. I don't mean to imply that brides who have showers are greedy, because I think most of them do it because it's expected or their family really wants to throw one, but it just isn't for me. The wedding gifts should be enough- how much crap does one couple need? Ugh, and the whole opening up all the gifts in front of everyone? Painful. And the fact that it's mostly kitchen stuff and housey things has a little bit of a creepy preparing-the-bride-for-wifely-duties vibe, despite the fact that I love cooking and would normally love to get kitchen stuff as presents. And the whole each broken ribbon equals one future child? You know what it really equals? Slow-ass unwrapping. Bridal Bingo? How about Bridal Stab My Eyes Out With That Bun Warmer?

Okay, the tirade ends here, because I went to a bridal shower today, and it was great to see the couple and nice of them to invite me, and the food was tasty, and now I'm starting to feel guilty about making fun of bridal showers.