On Birthdays
(Another marathon comment first made on Dru's page)
Hey, my birthday is on the most major family holiday my family celebrates. No points for the correct answer of Christmas. We are not religious, so we sort of move the holiday around to accomodate my mom's work schedule. Because I am so used to the family celebrations taking over my birthday, I now insist that my birthday is celebrated the same day as Christmas dinner anyways. The family part of it never bothered me - I've never had a bithday on any other day, so I never missed being the star of the show for the day. Helping entertain and make Christmas dinner is feels like the important part of getting credit for surviving another 365 days as a Hill family member.
The only downside is that none of my friends are ever free on my birthday, and not enough of them are free to have a party within two weeks before or afterwards, so my party gets put off till late January or never happens. Few people remember to bring presents, and when they do, I feel like a fraud.
I suspect that my parents try to make up for it by buying me particularly nice presents at that time, so I'm not jipped by design . . . but if I want something I can't or won't buy for myself, and develop this want in January, it's a bitch. So is stuff that has renewal dates on your birthday, like licenses. And people who go "you're a Christmas baby? Really?" and make me want to point out that probably one in 365 people are. But birthdays are all what you make of them.
In Bavaria, people celebrated their name days (the anniversary of theri first communion) more than their birthdays. My ex's Chinese parents would do a Chinese celebration on their birthday as listed by the Chinese calendar, and a westernized birthday on the birthdate on their Canadian citizenship and licenses. The Chinese have a month for each moon exactly, yet they name only 12 months. If there are thirteen moons in a year, they just repeat a month (if you ever wondered why Chinese New Year moves around). My ex's dad would sometimes rack in 3 birthdays in one year.
One of my most interesting birthdays (17th or so) involved me taking my grandma to the ER because she broke her finger. We waited for hours (low staffing on Christmas), and she fell asleep. Her snores were not loud enough to block out the interview going on in the room behind me . . . The cops had brought in some unwashed hairy looking dude, in handcuffs, and left him to be interviewed by the doctor. I assume they were also understaffed? Anyways, the doctor was clearly not willing to be in a closed room with him, and I could overhear the doctor carefully asking him the questions that were no doubt a prerequisite to admittance to the fourth floor(psychiatric unit). Aaand the guy was a DEFINITE candidate. When he was asked why he was brought here by the cops, he said it was a mix up. He had tried to explain to them that he had killed the cat, with a brick, because it had been stalking him, and plotting his demise. He detailed its repeated attempts to assasinate him, despite his precautions such as boarding up his windows etc. The interview continued in this fashion. My little ears remained cocked. It was all very informative, and the time passed very quickly.
Hey, my birthday is on the most major family holiday my family celebrates. No points for the correct answer of Christmas. We are not religious, so we sort of move the holiday around to accomodate my mom's work schedule. Because I am so used to the family celebrations taking over my birthday, I now insist that my birthday is celebrated the same day as Christmas dinner anyways. The family part of it never bothered me - I've never had a bithday on any other day, so I never missed being the star of the show for the day. Helping entertain and make Christmas dinner is feels like the important part of getting credit for surviving another 365 days as a Hill family member.
The only downside is that none of my friends are ever free on my birthday, and not enough of them are free to have a party within two weeks before or afterwards, so my party gets put off till late January or never happens. Few people remember to bring presents, and when they do, I feel like a fraud.
I suspect that my parents try to make up for it by buying me particularly nice presents at that time, so I'm not jipped by design . . . but if I want something I can't or won't buy for myself, and develop this want in January, it's a bitch. So is stuff that has renewal dates on your birthday, like licenses. And people who go "you're a Christmas baby? Really?" and make me want to point out that probably one in 365 people are. But birthdays are all what you make of them.
In Bavaria, people celebrated their name days (the anniversary of theri first communion) more than their birthdays. My ex's Chinese parents would do a Chinese celebration on their birthday as listed by the Chinese calendar, and a westernized birthday on the birthdate on their Canadian citizenship and licenses. The Chinese have a month for each moon exactly, yet they name only 12 months. If there are thirteen moons in a year, they just repeat a month (if you ever wondered why Chinese New Year moves around). My ex's dad would sometimes rack in 3 birthdays in one year.
One of my most interesting birthdays (17th or so) involved me taking my grandma to the ER because she broke her finger. We waited for hours (low staffing on Christmas), and she fell asleep. Her snores were not loud enough to block out the interview going on in the room behind me . . . The cops had brought in some unwashed hairy looking dude, in handcuffs, and left him to be interviewed by the doctor. I assume they were also understaffed? Anyways, the doctor was clearly not willing to be in a closed room with him, and I could overhear the doctor carefully asking him the questions that were no doubt a prerequisite to admittance to the fourth floor(psychiatric unit). Aaand the guy was a DEFINITE candidate. When he was asked why he was brought here by the cops, he said it was a mix up. He had tried to explain to them that he had killed the cat, with a brick, because it had been stalking him, and plotting his demise. He detailed its repeated attempts to assasinate him, despite his precautions such as boarding up his windows etc. The interview continued in this fashion. My little ears remained cocked. It was all very informative, and the time passed very quickly.
posted by Lu Hill at 3:38 p.m.
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