My Not-So-Well-Thought-Out Trip to the Home Planet

It's always a good idea to go home. It's always good to sit and talk with the parental units, especially during the wedding planning process. During this particular trip, we got in touch with a caterer who just so happens to be my best man's uncle, she found out about a Pamper Chef bridal shower (she's in heaven), and I touched base with a couple groomsmen I haven't gotten to talk to recently in person. Seems like a great trip back, right? I completely neglected to consider one critical flaw in my plan... the babymania that is currently running wild on my old stomping grounds.

Let me start out by saying this, I'm very excited to have kids. I have a lot of plans to coach little league and go to Disneyworld and the like. They are, however, plans for the future. In the midst of the wonderful chaos that is wedding planning, the female mind begins to wander past the wedding...to the future (a Jedi must be patient). Teen Mom 2, Pregnant in Heels, and the seemingly endless amount of baby stories are undoubtedly also key components to the particular focus on the baby-centric portions of the future. This isn't necessarily new. My fiance has been vocal about her desire to have children for some time, and thus far I've been able to keep balance in the force. Pop culture is pulling harder every day, and thus it becomes more difficult to keep the balance. In my quest to maintain order, my recent trip home was my Revenge of the Sith moment.

Being more focused on seeing my friends and family, I completely, utterly, and devastatingly forgot to consider the two additional powers present in the OC in the battle of me vs. babymania. First off, my "highly pregnant" sister. This is the term I like to use due to the fact that even as I write this I'm awaiting a phone call that my niece is on her way. My sister and fiance are very close, which has been used to harass me in the past (Yes, I'm talking about the walk back from the No Doubt concert), but is overall really awesome. However, seeing my sister about to pop only served to fuel the fire. My second blunder? Well, I literally walked right into it; 'it' being my best man's parent's house. When we make these trips we usually crash there, but it'd been a little while. His brothers had moved back in... with their children. Three in all, an 8 year-old little girl who we watched grow up (me all 8 years and her the last 5), a 3 year-old little blonde girl who we first met when she was a 3 week old little blonde girl, and the newest addition, his brother's two week old son. FML. It used to be that if one yelled "Mom!" you got one specific person's attention. Now, you get 2, but the original Mom now answers to "Grandma!". I couldn't even blame her for getting all worked up about babies, I took her straight into the heart of babymania, and I did it all by myself.

A few days have passed, the force is regaining balance and things are back to normal. But for two days... *shakes head*... Like I said, wedding wise it was productive, but my advice: While planning the wedding and drawing focus to your future together, if you're looking to maintain balance in the force, don't book a weekend vacation on the Death Star.