This is a small part of the reason why I'm nervous about my parents visiting. The other parts are that my mom is a teacher, and teachers believe in pointing out mistakes so people can learn from them, and I have a great many of them. Also, my dad's sense of humor is kind of whacky at the best of time, and his German is best described as 'improvised', but J. loves him and now several people want to meet him. Eek.
But back to the birthday thing. I mentioned this to J. J. is an understanding and kind person, but not where birthdays are concerned. Birthdays are to be celebrated, with food and gifts and family. If this cannot be arranged, a phone call with a 'happy birthday' slipped in casually should be provided, on the pain of
My mom's birthday was three and a half weeks ago, and Sis' and W.'s were coming up.
So I got a birthday calendar.
Birthday calendars are one of the hardest things to find once you enter October. Especially if you have an accent, and people assume you're looking for a calendar for the next year. I wasn't. The store I eventually found it in had calendars on three of it's four floors. One floor was entirely calendars. All of them were for 2013. There were day planners and family calendars and tear-away-and-read-the-joke calendars. There were make-your-own-calendar calendars. If I'd have been looking for one, I'd have found one within five minutes of searching.
The birthday calendars were a crumpled mess of leftovers, hung up next to the random gift and plushie section, hidden behind a rack of shiny children's 2013 calendars.
On the plus side, the calendar I eventually found to suit my needs and budget in these dark and troubled times right before the holidays, was cheap, had cute but acceptably adult illustrations and could be hung up by balancing a butter knife on a shelf above the television.
Boyfriend thought that it looked unsafe, and probably was. I argued that the suction cup hooks we'd bought had either been put to un-missable use or disappeared. He went out and bought me a new packet. I hung up the takeaway menu and the calendar side by side on the fridge.
There's no birthdays next month. In December, there's at least four, on top of the one for Baby Jesus and Baby 2013. January is going to be a six-birthday month, I believe. God save me. Or at least make Skype phone subscriptions cheaper, so I can call people who have cell phones, too.
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