Friday, January 4, 2008

A Hallmark Moment

One of my favorite bloggers recently confessed her phonephobia. I must confess this puzzled me to no end, a day without a phone conversation is really a day without sunshine, but then I realized I have a quirk that may weird a lot of you out.

So in the interest of convincing you of my never ending geekiness, I will confess. I do not understand or even really like, cards.

Yep, the kind you send. You see, when someone asks me to sign a group card that's what I do. I sign my name. This usually bothers the person organizing the card-fest and I have been asked (on more than one occasion) "but don't you want to say anything?" Nope. If I did, I would have.

When I get a card, I read it once, put it on my mantle to gather dust and after it falls off 15 or 16 times I put in the recycle and get on with my life.

There are people (who otherwise seem normal) who save all their cards and pull them out and re-read them. For fun! This is weird. It's a card, not a novel!

I even had a co-worker one time who I had to circulate a birthday card for. (We did the card and the cake for the person whose birthday fell just before ours.) So, I did. Apparently I missed getting two signatures (out of 25 or so). The receiver of the card pointed this out to me. This was the height of weirdness, and a smattering of rude as well. I never would have noticed, (or cared) if anyone missed signing mine. I feel good for a minute when I read the card, but then I return to my regularly scheduled life.

I do send cards, because it is a socially acceptable thing to do, but I must tell you, Dollarama has really revolutionized my life. Until then, I cringed every time I shelled out 3$-5$ for a pretty piece of paper with a poem or a joke on it. I finally took to making them to be able to afford to send my kids to college. Now at a buck a pop, I can almost handle cards. Almost.

Recently there have been lots of posts on Works for Me Wednesday about what to do with all your Christmas Cards. Two words. Blue Bin. I have two kids, one of whom attends Sunday School and Speech therapy. We have enough paper clutter in this house already to be a serious fire hazard. I just don't need more!

Now, if you have ever sent me a card, don't get me wrong, I liked it, I appreciate it that you thought of me and sent me one, it's just not going to stay in the house forever. Or even for long. I just don't get attached.

The one exception to this rule is Valentines. Way Cooler found this out the hard way. We generally (out of our extreme cheapness) do not exchange gifts on this pseudo-holiday but if there is no card, well then he's really taking his life into his own hands. I don't know why this is, but this is the one holiday I crave a card. But just from him. The rest of you, not so much. (For all the sweet women in my life who just wrote themselves a note to send me a Valentine's card.)

Yep, I can hear my name being deleted from Christmas Card lists all across the country. I told you I was a geek!

7 comments:

KnittinChick said...

Or... you could do what I do whenever I have to sign a group card... especially when someone has the nerve to go to a cool new job.

I usually write, "I'm not going to miss you." "You suck." "Hope you don't forget us when you make 100K a year."

I usually don't sign my name but usually they know who did it anyways!

TheOneTrueSue said...

Thanks for the link. I feel so special. :>

I am the SAME WAY with cards. I never keep them. But I do keep Valentines cards from my husband, if he's written something sentimental inside.

JCK said...

You are TOO funny, HappyGeek. But, I thought this was also really honest and interesting to read because of your honesty. Even if you do piss off some friends.

Bargainista said...

Got to love your honesty! and here is mine...b/c i am in the cardmaking business and can spend hours on one card...that one card will not go to you! If you get a card from me, it will definitely be from Dollarama.
Love you Happy Geek!

Middle-Aged Moi said...

No Christmas cards for the geek.....CHECK.

:-) (Mine all go in the blue bin too....except for my kids. I keep theirs and put them in a file. They are theirs. If they wanna toss them later, doesn't bother me.)

momofthecrazies said...

So what you're saying is for your birthday, send a gift but not a card. (Hope I don't mix that one up!) Where do gift CARDS fit in?

Char said...

Haha!! Yes, do know, if I send a card (and I do), it is so you will know I love you!! Chuck it, girl!! no clutter. But just know that I cared enough to let you know it!!

Love ya