Am I The Only One...?

OK, so Valentine's has been and gone (And I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for Oliver once again) and I'm pondering its aftermath. For some, obviously, their relationships have been strengthened and for others it's a beautiful beginning. For me, I always find Valentine's Day a little bit creepy.

I mean, I got a card from someone, who I'm still not convinced isn't my parents. But if it's not my parents, then I find it a bit creepy, to be honest. I can't really think of anyone who knows my address that would send me a card, which means that someone else went out of their way to obtain my address and send me a card. Am I the only one who finds that a little bit odd if this person isn't willing to tell me who they actually are? I would much rather that whoever this person is (providing it's not a joke or something) just told me if they like me.

Anyway, I found this picture the other day, then lost it, then found it again. And I thought you lovely people would like to see it because it made me smile. This is how I feel about people when I do things for them. Happy Valentine's Day, person.

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter (or Tweeter as I saw it called today) at @EmPernilla and I sometimes say things. It can be quite nice.

Thanks :)

Pointless Holidays

Today is Valentine's Day. Therefore I am pondering it. Congratulations to anyone who has a Valentine; from what I can tell, it's more common for people to be breaking up in the last few weeks than getting together. Which is really quite disillusioning for a hopeless romantic such as myself.

Anyway, it might just be me, but Valentine's Day doesn't seem to have been such a big deal this year as it has previously.  The only couples I know who are still together appear to be playing it down and not doing anything together this year. I know that Valentine's Day is just the "celebration of a guy who had his head chopped off for marrying Christians" (thanks Sophie!), but it's a little bit sad that so many people aren't using today as an excuse to be soppy and loved-up.

Which got me thinking, why do we expect so much from this particular day when so many other days go past without even being noticed? There's not really anything different about today compared to yesterday, except that it's Thursday. But anyway, what can you do?

And now for a shout out. On a day such as today, it is fair to gaze upon those less amorously fortune with a favourable glance, and thus I offer the opportunity to indulge temporarily in charity and humanity. As strong and as muscular as an ox, Oliver would act as a valuable asset (with a number of other valuable assets) to any life. If you think yo ready for this jelly, Move yo booty up and downn, make your booty touch the ground for this man filled with ennui.
(Sorry, he wrote it himself. I just think it's funny)

Now, I must go, for Peter Andre awaits (not in a weird way), and Mrs Compton is yelling. Very loving.

List Of Things One May Feel Inclined To Buy Cards For

• Birthdays
• Christmas
• Easter
• Eid
• Hannuhak
• Diwali
• Valentine's Day
• Mother's/Mothers' Day
• Father's/Fathers' Day
• Anniversary
• Engagement
• Wedding
• Wedding Acceptance (Sender)
• Sorry, We Can't Come To Your Wedding/Soiree (Sender)
• Grievances/With Sympathy
• New Baby
• Christening/Batism/Whatever
• Good Luck
• Passing Exams
• General Congratulations
• New Home
• Getting A New Address (Sender)
• We're Moving! (Sender)
• Apology
• Late Birthday
• Thank You
• New Job
• New School
• Leaving An Old Job
• Retirement
• Get Well Soon
• Justin Bieber Day. (It's actually a thing. Today. If you send me a card for this, I will disassociate myself from you permanently.)

Any I've missed, please feel free to add :-)

Birthdays

Today is Eduin's Birthday, so it is fairly obvious that I am pondering Birthdays. (duh, that's what the post title is...) Anyway, Birthdays are a quite ridiculous invention. I mean, a day to celebrate having been born x number of years ago. It's not like you've actually planned for it to happen, it just did. Well, obviously someone probably planned it, or at least allowed it, so it's not totally random. But you see my point.

So, why do we have all these traditions for Birthdays? Parties, for example. As a child (and still now) the party was the best bit of having a Birthday for me. It meant I could get all my friends together, who didn't necessarily know eachother, or who hadn't seen eachother for a long time, and we got to do something awesome for a couple of hours. Like caving, or swimming, or just playing pass the parcel (a totally normal 16th Birthday party - it surpassed the passing of any past parcel which had been passed in the past!) and the fact that it was your Birthday Party, that everyone was there to see you, made it even better. But why do we have parties to celebrate Birthdays? Why not have a special meal with family and/or friends, like we do at Christmas? Or decorate trees? Or have hunts around the garden (or park or whatever) for tiny chocolates? Obviously, depending on your inclination, you could do any of these things (except perhaps the tree) on your Birthday, but why isn't there something universal, like there are for other celebrations?

And what about presents? This has never made sense to me. Not that I'm complaining, everyone likes presents, but they don't really mean anything, do they? At Christmas, we give eachother presents to represent two things; firstly, God's gift of His son into the world and secondly the giving of the gifts from the Wise Men to Jesus. (N.B. If you're an atheist/non-Christian believer and you give presents at Christmas, it just makes you as nice person.) So why Birthdays? Is it meant to be a sort of prize? Congratulations on not having died since this time last year? Or is it an incentive to carry on living? It doesn't really represent anything, except for the fact that your birth is being celebrated several years too late by those who love you (or at least like you a bit).

Finally, cards. Whilst they are pretty and are given at many, many occasions (which I cannot be bothered to list here) they do appear to be a little bit silly. regardless of what pictures they have on them, or silly messages they have inside or whatever they are still a little piece of folded up paper containing a sentiment which would be more genuine if it was said out loud anyway.

I may never understand the logistics of Birthdays, but hopefully I shall continue to live to celebrate many more, not only of my own, but also everyone else, because you're all awesome people too.

As always, any comments (not too rude) are welcome and you can still follow me on Twitter - @EmPernilla (although why you would want to, I don't know)
:-)