It started as one of three conversations, which are also the three reasons we've decided to do it.
1: Our birthdays are in the wrong seasons.
I hate winter. I hate being cold. I hate the sun being far away. I hate the sun setting early. I hate cold and flu and stomach bug season. All growing up, I'd want to have fun outdoor birthday parties, but it would be thirty degrees, or it would snow and people couldn't come, or, like, the pool was closed because it was the dead of winter.
Gabe "hates" the summer. (I put it in quotes because he doesn't have enough malice of character to hate something properly like I do.) He hates being hot. He hates getting sunburned. He hates not being able to wear jeans all the time. He doesn't even like the beach. His favorite activities are brutal in the summertime: hiking, camping, bonfires and s'mores. Winter would be a great time of year for any version of his preferred birthday parties.
2: The gift-giving windows don't suit us personally.
I am not good at presents. (Some people will staunchly defend me and say that I give AMAZING presents. I don't know if that's true or not, but I DO know that any time I've given a gift that wasn't the amazingness of reused teabag, it took me MONTHS of planning and thinking and stressing and crying and wracking my brain and panicking. So, whether or not I "give amazing presents," I am not "good at presents." It is not one of my natural gifts. [Ha, pun.])
That being said, if Gabe and I go with our biological birthdays, I have to plan and think and stress and et cetera virtually ALL YEAR LONG. I stress from January to August about his birthday present, and August to December about his Christmas present. I would much rather just BAM: give him a present in December, and a present in February, and then I can relax until, like, August.
Gabe is insanely wonderful at presents. Giving gifts is the way he likes to show love to people. So, it was sad to him that he only got to give me anything during a little quarter-of-the-year window. If we switch birthdays, he gets to spread out the
3: We prefer each other's birthstones.
This one is pretty simple. My favorite color is green. His favorite is purple. August's birthstone is a peridot. February's is an amethyst. WHAT MORE OF A SIGN DID WE NEED?!
So, what does this mean for you, as a friend of one or both of us? Nothing, if you don't want it to. You can stick with our biological birthdays for all card- and gift-giving purposes if you wish. This is just an announcement to say that as far as WE are concerned, my birthday is now August 7th, and Gabe's is February 7th. We will give each other gifts on our new birthdays, and any birthday celebrations that we plan and execute will correspond to our new birthdays.
*happy sigh* I wouldn't want to (and couldn't) be this weird with anyone else. Happy almost birthday, Gabe ;)
Hi there =)
ReplyDeleteyou left a comment on my blog in june-ish if last year, and surprise surprise, i didnt see it until now. i dont know why, but i decided to just check up on my blog, and there it was! upon reading your comment, i could not for the life of me remember who you or your blog were. scratched my head (figuratively), searched my brain, tried and tried to remember, but no avail. so i decided to give pandora a visit, and went aaaaaalllllllllllll the way back to the first posts. and you were right, there i was. i reread a few of the posts, and finally managed to have some recollection of it. wow!
now, i DID try to reply promptly, but i only had a phone and no proper laptop, so i couldnt log in to comment and your page didnt let me comment without being logged in (bah!), and thus i dont remember exactly what i was going to say then.
nonetheless, i know the comment and the trip down memory lane made me smile, and i wanted to thank you for stopping by and saying hello, even in the unsurety of my seeing it, let alone responding. its always nice catching up with old friends and acquaintances, be they in the flesh or in the internet. you seem different (and probably are; as am i.... time does that to a person), but you also seem to be doing well, and that makes me happy. youre married now? i dont know when it happened, but congratulations! i am too, just happened this january (as in 2 months ago).
i didnt know you had a new blog (actually.... maybe i did sort of know. im sure i popped in sometime in the past, i just didnt actively follow), but good on you that you kept writing and updating (unlike SOME of us over here!!).
funny thing about this post. i read it and the way you write still makes me smile. its because it seems like you write how i write, and i write the way i talk. not always, of course, because i like to be well-spoken and thought out when im writing, because i have the luxury of thinking over my wording and reading and proofing my mistakes. but! when i am telling a story in writing, or typing, i basically tell it exactly how it come out of my mouth. reading this post, i could imagine myself writing it just like that.
we have the same birth month! have we ever discussed that?? who knows, but i think its mad cool. no wait, me and your husband now have the same birth month! cool! if i dont respond to you for ages again, then i hope life treats you well, and everything is great for you. ill TRY to maybe get back on that blog train, though, in which case i will totally try to follow you somehow.
but if you would like, you can feel free to shoot me an email >> goroshechik at gmail dot com. (didnt want the html link to show up, yknow? i really wont mind. like i said, its always nice to catch up. and hey, sometimes internet friends make really awesome irl friends.
betcha werent expecting a whole essay in your comments, eh?
take care.