April 14, 2014

Being a good sport will always get you farther

"Does she or doesn't she?"  Years ago that was that was the catchphrase of a popular hair dye product advertisement.  “Only her hairdresser knows…..” it went on to quip. 

This past weekend I couldn't help but recall that million dollar question.  The occasion to celebrate the coming birth of a great niece led the two aunts-to-be (my sister and I), to participate in a baby shower.

I wasn't really sure how my older sister might handle the event as she has always contended that she absolutely abhors baby showers and especially  those silly, awful games that shower-goers are forced to participate in.

But as she is apt to do, big sister once again confounded her little sis.  She not only fearlessly volunteered for an unknown shower activity, but she willingly became the butt of the joke so to speak.  (But in a good way of course.)

Standing in front of a room full of fellow women shower attendees, and before we could lose our nerve, we were handed a gargantuan white union suit, the kind with a drop seat in the hind end, intended for a really big guy to wear on a very cold winter’s night.

And she was told to don it.  That she did and we awaited further instructions, (she's always been good at following directions). What followed was hilarious mayhem as I, her assistant, attempted to shove as many balloons into the opening in the back of her union suit.  While I was furiously shoving balloons into the opening in the back of her get up she was quickly working at repositioning them throughout the jumpsuit. 

We got to #19.

She soon started to resemble the Michelin woman or a very lumpy bag of oversized marbles. We raced the expectant mother and her son who worked together like a well-oiled machine, and alas we lost by just one balloon. 

Then we went on to other much less physical games.  I eyed sister, ear cocked to hear the scoffing that would surely come from her when the jars of baby food were passed around on a tray.  “I hate these game,” she would surely utter.

Identify the baby foods, we were told. Simple, I thought.  Not so.  A couple samples I actually tasted with one of the spoons provided for the more adventurous sorts.  Still I could not identify every one of those delectable delights correctly.  But she did.

And then it was on to naming the most things carried in your purse, with points assigned to the most unusual items. She came in second place in that game. By that time she was raking in the prizes big time. I was beginning to rethink her philosophy at this point.

But I inadvertently won a prize in the ice cube event.  Melt it any way you can and the first to do so wins a prize.  Well of course my teeth couldn’t stand the abuse of rolling around a chunk of ice in my mouth.  And it was too cold to hold that frozen morsel in my hands.  So I did what I thought brilliant: I dropped the cube into my cup of coffee and in moments it had evaporated.  Yes I was a winner in that event!

We all had our share of fun at the baby shower.  That may have surprised more than one of us but not least of all, the greater of the great-aunts-to-be.  She had a wonderful time, led us in a barrel of laughs, and won some really terrific prizes.

I guess the moral of the story here is, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.  Or be open to new experiences.  Or just don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself.  And most important, not all of those silly shower games are that stupid!!