Last Saturday I had my second wedding shower. Last week's was for the young'uns, this one was for all the relatives. We had it at Dave's aunt's house, and it was quite an experience to see the aunts and uncles from both sides of the family in one place. Talk about worlds colliding! So of course, I'm not great at social situations like this, so half the time I was having a little internal freak-out. I'm not great at playing the hostess, and I'm even worse at being the guest of honor.

The basement was packed, there were a lot of bodies in there. I think I did an OK job of mingling, but I did a horrible job of remembering everyone's name. Both sides of the family seemed to get along pretty well. Everyone loved my dad's barbeque. I don't know who's responsibility it was, but no one had the bridal bingo ready. I mean, what's a bridal shower without the cheesey games? So we were tying to get everything together, and had sent Melanie out to go buy pens. The crowd was getting restless. People wanted me to open my gifts, but we kept on saying that we were going to play bingo. We didn't know how to hold the masses back until Melanie's return.

Then one of my bridesmaids, and her name will be changed to protect the innocent, fainted. At first I had thought that Pachel had just fallen down the stairs, but then I was told the she had fainted. We looked around for a doctor in the family and found one. Everyone was in a frenzy and wanted to see what was going on. Then they told me to call 911. I said 'Are you sure?' and they looked a little uncertain. But then Pachel started fainting again, and they yelled at me to hurry. Of course, this wasn't my house so I didn't know where they phone was. So I ran to Dave's aunt asking for a phone, and she brought me to a corner where the cordless phone was at, and it wasn't there. So she's yelling for the phone, and she tells me that there's a phone in the kitchen upstairs. I run past the crowd that is fanning Pachel and go up the steps and find the phone. I call 911, and say that someone had fainted and fallen down the steps. Then she asks me the address. I don't know! I yell out, what's the address here? But by then the dispatcher had found the address. The ambulance is coming.

So I go back downstairs, and by now they had moved Pachel over to the couch. She's lying there with her eyes closed and they're discussing what to do. We've called her fiance to tell him what's going on, and he's half asleep. Only after we tell him that she fainted and the ambulance was coming did he wake up. We're all sitting there when the paramedics arrive. I'm pretty sure he's surprised to see all the people in the basement. "Is there a party going on in here?" he asks? There are two other paramedics with him, and they ask Pachel several questions. She doesn't want to go to the hospital because she's feeling better. So she has to sign a waiver. So they're standing there, talking to her, taking her blood pressure, when two more paramedics come down the stairs. Now several of these men were pretty good looking. One of the aunts came up to me and asked, "Just how many times did you call 911?" Just once, I say. When the second set of paramedics came down, Jen turns to me and gives me a look. It was a devilish look, which echoed the thoughts in my mind. Was this whole fainting spell an act by Pachel, so the male strippers had an excuse to come down? Because some of them sure did look like strippers. I was waiting for the music to start playing and the lights to go down.

But no strippers. It was for real. She signed the waiver and the paramedics were on their way to go. But not before the Titas (aunties) had offered them food. Several times. And when they said that they had dinner at the firehouse, the Titas offered to wrap some food up for the rest of the station. Yeah, can't hide from the Filipino hospitality!

So Pachel's drama cut up the monotony of the party. As soon as the paramedics left, I cried, "Who wants to play some Bridal Bingo?" We passed the cards out and I called the bridal words. It was tough to be heard over the chitterings of 30+ women, but I think they had a good time playing. After the games, I made sure that Pachel was still doing ok, and told her that I knew she was trying to steal my thunder. I had realized that she was just jealous that I was having a party that she needed the attention drawn to herself. Just you wait til your bridal shower, missy, I'll show you drama!

To top the day off, I opened up my gifts. I never really realized how powerful having a registry is. I got everything I wanted, and more! It's incredible! Now the question is, where to store all this stuff for the year that I'm gone!

All in all, it was a good time. My panic scale was pretty low, as was my stress level. Pachel had apologized for ruining my party, but I told her she didn't ruin it, she made it that much more interesting. My party will be the bridal party that everyone wil be talking about - where they fit so many people in the basement that someone passed out. She's ok, so it's ok to joke about it. We had some really good laughs later when we were talking about the paramedics being strippers. I had fun. My guests had fun. Hell, even my dad had fun.

Posted by Yano at July 21, 2003 11:22 AM

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