When it showers, it pours

In today's mail I found an invitation to the wedding shower of a former coworker/friend who I haven't spoken to in at least a year, probably more. In fact, the only reason I even know she's engaged is because a mutual friend, who I still see frequently, told me the news. Am I just overly cynical, or is this a bit tacky? I was especially turned off by the fact that the "X and Y are registered at..." cards were the first thing I pulled out of the envelope.

These marrying people just seem to keep coming out of the woodwork. At least I'm reasonably sure I won't have to pull bridesmaid duty for this one. Luckily for me we're going to be out of town the weekend of the shower, and with luck, the wedding will coincide with another of the many we have schedule, since there are only so many weekends in October.

Last weekend was the "interactive" bride's shower, and it went surprisingly smoothly. I would even say that I'd recommend wine tasting as an activity at any such party--it pretty much ran itself, leaving the matron-of-honor/master of ceremonies and I to do the behind the scenes stuff without feeling as though we were neglecting the guests.

She and I got along famously as well, owing to an epiphany that I'd had the day before. Thinking back, I remembered my initial offer to "help" with the shower. Somehow I'd recast my role in my own mind as that of co-planner--and then proceeded to get irritated when she didn't give me more to do, even though I really didn't want to do any of it. Saturday I gave myself a good smack in the head and settled gratefully into my supporting role, and it was great. No need to drive myself crazy or write a big check for stuff I had no say in. I made bruschetta, helped set up and clean up, and made the bow bouquet. The matron-of-honor and resident type A personality did the rest, and did it beautifully, I must say. I may have to try suppressing my inner control freak more often. It was a nice change.