As the clock ticked over midnight it occurred to me it's the birthday of someone I haven't seen in forever, and am not likely to see again. Funny how my brain works. Or doesn't, as the case may be.
Speaking of birthdays, I've decided to give up buying greeting cards. They're inevitably trite, and not even remotely close to being worth their price tag. They're approaching ten bucks a piece now, and that's ridiculous. At a buck a card they'd be profitable. At almost ten times that, they're insulting. Worst of all, they'd begun to feel like an obligatory part of gift-giving when they're actually quite superfluous. I feel like the victim of a dubious guilt-markting campaign, like the (evil evil evil!) De Beers nonsense about spending two months' salary on a terrorist-funding, child-killing, slave-endorsing blood-rock … um, I mean, a diamond.
As for greeting cards, I'd rather throw an extra sawbuck into the gift, or if the occasion really calls for a note I'll write it myself.
Suck on that, Hallmark.
