Grumpy Smurf
If you haven't read my family's current state of madness, please read my posts about the move and the job change. You can start with yesterday's post, but most of the past month has been riddled with chaos
While treading water on a bicycle with a fruit basket on my head, I'm also contributing to the AW Blogger Chain. I've listed the chain in the sidebar, but it's probably not the right order, as it changes sometimes.
Gillian tagged me from her sweet post about birthday gifts, and the really thoughtful book she got for her mother.
Now, I'm supposed to build my post off of this, but all I can think about is all the birthdays I HAVEN'T given gifts for. I used to be Ms. Sappy, Phd with personalized poems and decoupaged photo clocks and surprise parties.
But that lady seriously flunked out.
Don't get me wrong, every holiday in my calendar gets hijacked by someone, so there's plenty of spending. And sure, I actually enjoy shopping for the people that live with me (even though it's usually the day before -- on eBay -- to be shipped within 48 hours.) But I'm pretty Bah Humbug about everything else.
I know the birthday month of most of my extended family members, but that's the extent of it. If I happen to see someone during their birthday month, the greeting might go something like this:
"Didn't you just have a birthday?"
"No, it's not 'til next week."
"Oh, well happy almost-birthday."
"Thanks?"
So now that we've established the fact that I'm a completely lame sibling, niece, aunt and cousin, I should let you know that I don't buy gifts for friends either. My rationale is that if I buy her a gift, she'll think she needs to buy me one. There's all the score-keeping, etc.
Cripes, I can't even remember to brush my hair, how could I ever keep track of what kind of gift Sally gave me last year. Or was that the year before and she skipped my last birthday? Or did Gertrude give me that? OMG - maybe they're trying to tell me to stop the cycle...
Forget it.
And I'm not sending one of those hand-made, stamp-it-up, origami-works-of-art thank you cards either. The verbal one from my honest lips is all you get.
Sorry, Grumpy Smurf has been edgy lately.
Simran is up next in the chain. She's a lovely lady who writes about Everything Indian. I'm sure she'll pull the chain back from my depths of snarkdom.
Here's every post in the chain:
Forbidden Snowflake
Fireflies in the Cloud
Mad Scientist Matt's Lair
Youth - Our Greatest Natural Resource - aka Pass the Torch
The Road Less Traveled
Jennifer Sando
Peregrinas
Flying Shoes
Southern Expressions
Organized Chaos
Kappa no He
Tiffany's Smorgasbord
Even in a Little Thing
Liv's Life
Everything Indian
AW Chain gifts snark
While treading water on a bicycle with a fruit basket on my head, I'm also contributing to the AW Blogger Chain. I've listed the chain in the sidebar, but it's probably not the right order, as it changes sometimes.
Gillian tagged me from her sweet post about birthday gifts, and the really thoughtful book she got for her mother.
Now, I'm supposed to build my post off of this, but all I can think about is all the birthdays I HAVEN'T given gifts for. I used to be Ms. Sappy, Phd with personalized poems and decoupaged photo clocks and surprise parties.
But that lady seriously flunked out.
Don't get me wrong, every holiday in my calendar gets hijacked by someone, so there's plenty of spending. And sure, I actually enjoy shopping for the people that live with me (even though it's usually the day before -- on eBay -- to be shipped within 48 hours.) But I'm pretty Bah Humbug about everything else.
I know the birthday month of most of my extended family members, but that's the extent of it. If I happen to see someone during their birthday month, the greeting might go something like this:
"Didn't you just have a birthday?"
"No, it's not 'til next week."
"Oh, well happy almost-birthday."
"Thanks?"
So now that we've established the fact that I'm a completely lame sibling, niece, aunt and cousin, I should let you know that I don't buy gifts for friends either. My rationale is that if I buy her a gift, she'll think she needs to buy me one. There's all the score-keeping, etc.
Cripes, I can't even remember to brush my hair, how could I ever keep track of what kind of gift Sally gave me last year. Or was that the year before and she skipped my last birthday? Or did Gertrude give me that? OMG - maybe they're trying to tell me to stop the cycle...
Forget it.
And I'm not sending one of those hand-made, stamp-it-up, origami-works-of-art thank you cards either. The verbal one from my honest lips is all you get.
Sorry, Grumpy Smurf has been edgy lately.
Simran is up next in the chain. She's a lovely lady who writes about Everything Indian. I'm sure she'll pull the chain back from my depths of snarkdom.
Here's every post in the chain:
Forbidden Snowflake
Fireflies in the Cloud
Mad Scientist Matt's Lair
Youth - Our Greatest Natural Resource - aka Pass the Torch
The Road Less Traveled
Jennifer Sando
Peregrinas
Flying Shoes
Southern Expressions
Organized Chaos
Kappa no He
Tiffany's Smorgasbord
Even in a Little Thing
Liv's Life
Everything Indian
AW Chain gifts snark
9 Comments:
One of my nieces and I hae an 'unbirthday' party every year, so we don't have to remember anything. It's an excuse to do exactly what we like, on the day of our choice. Other family members have been known to eye the unbirthday celebration off yearningly. Sometimes we magnanimously issue them invitations. It creates a haven of sanity in birthday-riddled time.
That sounds like a great idea. I may have to adopt this. Thanks for commenting, Gillian
Funny! What's wrong with Snarkdom? I've lived there before.
Thank you for the nice introduction Liv. No problems, I pulled us from the depths of Snarkdom. It's an interesting place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. :-)
Beautiful post! Were you reading my mind?
I'm so lame... :D
Aaaaah - a kindred spirit!!
You mean there's actually 2 grumpy smurfs in the world? I thought I lived with the only one. lol.
I hate that feeling of obligation as in if someone gives you a gift then you have to get them one. I'm with you, Liv. I just don't care. It's kind of greedy to give someone a gift for whatever reason and automatically expect to get one in return.
For a second I thought I was reading something I had forgotten I'd written when I read this: "I used to be Ms. Sappy, Phd with personalized poems and decoupaged photo clocks and surprise parties. But that lady seriously flunked out." Because this? Is seriously me.
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