Cruella's Birthday!
I had, for the most part, a wonderful birthday- - - perhaps a little much of it, but O well. It's the big 3-0.
As reported on Ian's blog http://rantnrave.typepad.com/ you can see the list of attendees as well as pictures:
First of all, I have to remark that many people gave me many wonderful presents, such as DANIEL, who gave me a bottle of gin AND bought our dinners. He was remarkably kind, for which we are eternally grateful and appreciative. Alex Sara and Ian collaborated to give me some $$$, which is always valued; Trey got me a box of mystery novels, and then waited in line from 3 in the morning until 10 in the morning to get me Strokes tickets- I will have to write some more about that- Cathy got me some pillows.
Now, on the extreme opposite hand, Freomi collaborated to get me the out and out Tackiest Present Ever, and that takes some doing. They are famous for really, really tacky gifts; Cringeworthy gifts, gifts that make you want to cry. I think they went out of their way to pick this particular thing; there's such a thing as thoughtlessness but this- it can't be. It just can't.
Freomi put a picture together, with some pictures of us (almost none of which, by the way, were attractive) but broke the picture frame when Naomi allegedly stepped on the glass. this did not, incidentally, deter them from presenting me with this. Great, I said, now I have another piece of broken crap to put in my house. Anyone else would have said we got you something but it broke so we're getting it fixed and then we're going to give it to you. No, not them. Their crowning gift was: a half eaten box of chocolates. Yes. They had tried the chocolates, passed them around Naomi's family, no one liked them, so they gave them to me. That is awful. Not only that, but one of the chocolates had been bitten and then replaced.
Now I've re-gifted before: I gave Trey a Starbucks card one of the students gave me because I knew he would appreciate it more than I do, and I gave Alex a Blockbuster card one of the students gave me because we have Netflix, and I'm not going to use it, and I gave Freddy some flavoured coffee that my department chair gave me because I don't like coffee that tastes like air freshener. I don't want it to taste like orange or peppermint or whatever. Yuck. Actually in the first two cases, I gave it as a present, but I told my brother I was re-gifting, and in the last case I said I'm not going to use this, do you want it, but I didn't present it as a gift. And I certainly didn't open it, use it, and then decide I didn't like it and give it to someone else as a "gift."
I have no idea where this comes from. Neither of them have the pathological frugality that I might ordinarily associate with this behaviour; they are quite spendthrifts and the only person I know who is pathologically frugal (my mother; she brings home paper towels from the office and REUSES them) is actually quite generous. Freddy may not have received a lot of nice gifts as a child, but he's been around people who have; Naomi seems to have raised in an environment where appearances were important and had enough money to understand gift giving. She certainly appreciates RECEIVING them. I am beginning to think that they think I won't notice, or won't care. I'll have to think of something suitably horrible to give them on the next occasion.
Well, as Ian pointed out, after the Colonnade, at which I got major accolades for my tiara, we went to Cathy's house, and then we went home. Ian neglected to point out that we made the cocktail with champagne, gin, pineapple, and grapefruit juice; this was indeed delicious but also one of those drinks likely to make one not ever remember a large part of the evening. Apparently whiskey also went into this, which I did not intend. I don't know WHY it is a gooThe last thing I remember was playing "Thorn In My Side" for Sara; I was told after that that I ranted about Trey's dish of salt water, and that Sara was trying to teach me how to Shake It Like a Polaroid Picture and then I pounced on Trey, but I don't remember any of that. Then Ian had his going away party, and I do remember most of that. It was very nice.
As reported on Ian's blog http://rantnrave.typepad.com/ you can see the list of attendees as well as pictures:
First of all, I have to remark that many people gave me many wonderful presents, such as DANIEL, who gave me a bottle of gin AND bought our dinners. He was remarkably kind, for which we are eternally grateful and appreciative. Alex Sara and Ian collaborated to give me some $$$, which is always valued; Trey got me a box of mystery novels, and then waited in line from 3 in the morning until 10 in the morning to get me Strokes tickets- I will have to write some more about that- Cathy got me some pillows.
Now, on the extreme opposite hand, Freomi collaborated to get me the out and out Tackiest Present Ever, and that takes some doing. They are famous for really, really tacky gifts; Cringeworthy gifts, gifts that make you want to cry. I think they went out of their way to pick this particular thing; there's such a thing as thoughtlessness but this- it can't be. It just can't.
Freomi put a picture together, with some pictures of us (almost none of which, by the way, were attractive) but broke the picture frame when Naomi allegedly stepped on the glass. this did not, incidentally, deter them from presenting me with this. Great, I said, now I have another piece of broken crap to put in my house. Anyone else would have said we got you something but it broke so we're getting it fixed and then we're going to give it to you. No, not them. Their crowning gift was: a half eaten box of chocolates. Yes. They had tried the chocolates, passed them around Naomi's family, no one liked them, so they gave them to me. That is awful. Not only that, but one of the chocolates had been bitten and then replaced.
Now I've re-gifted before: I gave Trey a Starbucks card one of the students gave me because I knew he would appreciate it more than I do, and I gave Alex a Blockbuster card one of the students gave me because we have Netflix, and I'm not going to use it, and I gave Freddy some flavoured coffee that my department chair gave me because I don't like coffee that tastes like air freshener. I don't want it to taste like orange or peppermint or whatever. Yuck. Actually in the first two cases, I gave it as a present, but I told my brother I was re-gifting, and in the last case I said I'm not going to use this, do you want it, but I didn't present it as a gift. And I certainly didn't open it, use it, and then decide I didn't like it and give it to someone else as a "gift."
I have no idea where this comes from. Neither of them have the pathological frugality that I might ordinarily associate with this behaviour; they are quite spendthrifts and the only person I know who is pathologically frugal (my mother; she brings home paper towels from the office and REUSES them) is actually quite generous. Freddy may not have received a lot of nice gifts as a child, but he's been around people who have; Naomi seems to have raised in an environment where appearances were important and had enough money to understand gift giving. She certainly appreciates RECEIVING them. I am beginning to think that they think I won't notice, or won't care. I'll have to think of something suitably horrible to give them on the next occasion.
Well, as Ian pointed out, after the Colonnade, at which I got major accolades for my tiara, we went to Cathy's house, and then we went home. Ian neglected to point out that we made the cocktail with champagne, gin, pineapple, and grapefruit juice; this was indeed delicious but also one of those drinks likely to make one not ever remember a large part of the evening. Apparently whiskey also went into this, which I did not intend. I don't know WHY it is a gooThe last thing I remember was playing "Thorn In My Side" for Sara; I was told after that that I ranted about Trey's dish of salt water, and that Sara was trying to teach me how to Shake It Like a Polaroid Picture and then I pounced on Trey, but I don't remember any of that. Then Ian had his going away party, and I do remember most of that. It was very nice.
posted by SavageATL at 10:16 AM
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