The day after. Still in this dark hole.
Dec. 26th, 2009 02:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynConsidering the sudden advent (heh) of Christmas excitement, I don't think I thought there would be post-Christmas blah. If things don't build up to unmanageable expectations, there shouldn't be a huge let-down, right?
We're not big Christians. Or any sort of Christian at all. But we're the first generation that escaped, so there are residual obligations. That means, to me, Christmas is a duty that requires months of advance preparation and shopping and lots of queuing and an enormous amount of money just to kowtow to best forgotten mythology. Lately we've managed to minimize this by not going for the big holiday visit. But there are still gifts to buy and ship.
The people we exchange with are not people who know or like me. Even after 15 years, my SO's family gives me generic gifts. (Not in the unbranded sense, but in the "things you can give any adult woman" sense.)
Now it's all over. Most of the thank yous have even gone out.
I got some useful stuff. A tiny notebook with a cover. An umbrella. They are not, neither one of them, purple. It's not a huge thing, but you'd think, after more than a decade, that generic gifts could be chosen in my colors. Most of my SO's family likes red. I haven't liked red since I was in preschool. But still, all my gifts are red and covered in flowers because all women like flowers. Since the biggest problem with umbrellas is that they get lost, I suppose a red floral one is not a bad choice. If I lose it, I'll get a non-red one, but of course this one's lurid-ness virtually prevents loss. Thou shalt buy thyself the world's ugliest umbrella and no one will steal it.
I have pictures I need to take of yarn I've spun and various new things I bought myself. I just can't be bothered.
Some of the lethargy is because my gift to my SO failed. I bought him a watch and it arrived dead. I thought about it and realized I wouldn't want people to be able to ship something that ticked, so probably all the shippers have a way to disable batteries. It seems like they shouldn't bother selling quartz watches online then though, so maybe this was just a lemon. At least it will be easy to return... always easier to return something that's defective.
We're not big Christians. Or any sort of Christian at all. But we're the first generation that escaped, so there are residual obligations. That means, to me, Christmas is a duty that requires months of advance preparation and shopping and lots of queuing and an enormous amount of money just to kowtow to best forgotten mythology. Lately we've managed to minimize this by not going for the big holiday visit. But there are still gifts to buy and ship.
The people we exchange with are not people who know or like me. Even after 15 years, my SO's family gives me generic gifts. (Not in the unbranded sense, but in the "things you can give any adult woman" sense.)
Now it's all over. Most of the thank yous have even gone out.
I got some useful stuff. A tiny notebook with a cover. An umbrella. They are not, neither one of them, purple. It's not a huge thing, but you'd think, after more than a decade, that generic gifts could be chosen in my colors. Most of my SO's family likes red. I haven't liked red since I was in preschool. But still, all my gifts are red and covered in flowers because all women like flowers. Since the biggest problem with umbrellas is that they get lost, I suppose a red floral one is not a bad choice. If I lose it, I'll get a non-red one, but of course this one's lurid-ness virtually prevents loss. Thou shalt buy thyself the world's ugliest umbrella and no one will steal it.
I have pictures I need to take of yarn I've spun and various new things I bought myself. I just can't be bothered.
Some of the lethargy is because my gift to my SO failed. I bought him a watch and it arrived dead. I thought about it and realized I wouldn't want people to be able to ship something that ticked, so probably all the shippers have a way to disable batteries. It seems like they shouldn't bother selling quartz watches online then though, so maybe this was just a lemon. At least it will be easy to return... always easier to return something that's defective.
