Cash as a present?

Yup, Happy Birthday to me. Forty-five years ago, at 6:00 a.m., I made my world debute. A small side-note of interest: my father was Rh+ and my mother Rh-. I am Rh+, and so was born with Rh incompatibility syndrome. I was one of the lucky ones, in that my case was relatively mild and all I got from it was a case of jaundice. Medical science has come a long way since then; babies in the US don’t die from Rh incompatibility any more.

The Professor and I finished our game of Trivial Pursuit. I managed a win when I finally got a leisure question out of the Sports and Leisure category. He noted that I got all the easy questions, while he once again got all the difficult ones! It seemed like the opposite was true from my vantage point, but then perpective is everything. With luck, we’ll play miniature golf today. He nearly always creams me at that, so honor can be restored.

Went to my younger sister’s house for the celebratory birtday dinner last night. Strange to realize that my list of blood relatives now stands at just my two sisters. My parents were only children, and neither I nor my sisters had children ourselves. It makes pulling family functions together easy, anyhow. Both sisters gave me a card with a check in it for my birthday, although the younger also gave me a cute little agate bracelet, with the agates cut and polished into tiny stars. Problem is, I gave up wearing bracelets four years ago. Since I now have the Medic-Alert bracelet on my left wrist, and wear my watch on my right wrist, I’ve kinda run out of arms for bracelets to go. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts. The elder sister gave me a bunch of flowers, which ought to be OK if I keep them out of the reach of the Warrior Princess and the Clueless Wonder, both of whom revert to vegetarianism if they sense that the plant they want to eat is valuable. Cats … go figure.

Personal preference, but I never give cash as a gift to an adult. I seldom give gift certificates. I feel that if I should be giving someone a gift, then I should at least take the time to get to learn their tastes and try to make it a meaningful gift. I do make sure that the present is returnable, should I screw up. I always feel better when I have a tangible item to give as a gift, though.

My sisters, on the other hand, have fallen into the rut of “I don’t know what to get you any more so I wrote you a check.” It’s rather like the joke gift that gets re-wrapped and re-bestowed every Christmas. I could give just as meaningful a gift by endorsing the checks back over to them on their birthdays and at Christmas. It seems I’m the only one who sees the irony of the situation, though. sigh

Well, I’ll nose about in the Diaries for a bit while my tea comes to a boil, and then go read some more of China Mieville’s new one out on the balcony for a while.