Mardi Gras Family Crisis

In October I thought I would apply to be in a ladies Mardi Gras association in my area. Several friends have been asking me to do so for years, but I'm just now doing it because...

1. I'm just finally over the trauma associated with mandatory functions and fines that came with being a sorority member in college.
2. I thought it could be a good way to meet new people that I wouldn't normally cross paths with.
3. I could really use a diversion from family.
4. I could really use a diversion from infertility.

Well, reasons number one and number three have blown up in my face. It seems that both of my SILs applied for the same organization after I had already done so. One of them, M who makes me want to vomit when I'm in the same room with her, smuggly told me that she was surprised that I hadn't applied for one. I almost lodged my contacts in the top of my head. Did she really think that I hadn't applied for one just because I didn't tell her about it?

This week I found out that I had been accepted. Of course, minutes after hearing the news I heard the phrase "some people only attend the mandatory meetings. Gag!!! What have I done. And of course, both of my SILs were accepted as well. However, everyone was accepted because so many members went honorary and there were lots of open spaces for active members.

It gets better. My friend was curious to know who had "put up" my SILs for the organization. It seems that you have to have someone willing to make a pitch about all of your wonderful attributes in order to get in. Guess what? The current president of the organization "put up" M! My head is still spinning on this one, since M has actually lived in the area all of 8 months. That's not necessarily a good thing though, because the president is not a well loved member right now. B had another ancient member put her up. However, neither was adored enough by the person who put them up to actually receive tickets to the ball this year, which I'm still trying to figure out. Why waste time putting up someone you wouldn't invite to the ball? I can only hope I received more votes than M and B.

There is a new members meeting to attend in May. I only hope I can survive it without vomiting on myself or anyone else. I'm already in search of the perfect outfit.

And sadly, the summer party for the organization is only four days after my estimated retrieval date, so I most likely won't be attending. I guess reason number 4 to join the organization has blown up in my face as well.

You may be wondering why I'm actually bothering to join at this point. I just can't let M and B drive me away from something I had decided to join first. And, supposedly there are 300+ members in the organization, and it's likely I can go through completely unaware of M and B as long as we aren't assigned to the same float.