Birthday Traditions, Part 1
iDecided to tell a story about a recent development, but first there needs to be some background:
For years, from childhood on, my main birthday tradition was having a party with as many friends as possible. Nothing unique there, but as traditions go, that's a pretty good one to have. (My mom would usually bake a t-shirt shaped cake with black icing and a Pittsburgh Steelers logo on it for the party, but that's another story).
I continued this tradition every year until I entered college. I even managed to pull it off a couple of times during my relatively antisocial college years, though the "parties" consisted of only 2-3 other people. Oh, and let's just say that Blue Velvet is not a good movie for birthday party viewing.
It took a couple of years before I got the tradition restarted once I got to NI. But birthdays were always a good excuse for a happy hour, and mine was no exception.
Then, once I got to IBM, I found myself with a salary that actually met the market average for the first time. I was no longer making substantially less than a tech writer should. That, plus becoming a homeowner, led to the birth of a second birthday tradition: buying myself something major for a birthday gift. So one year, I bought myself a big-screen TV. The next, an entertainment center to go around that. The next year, new bedroom furniture. And finally, in 2004, I bought myself a point-and-shoot digital camera, which was by far the smallest and least expensive of the lot, but still well worth it.
Then, in 2005, I got laid off. I'd been considering getting an iPod photo for an early birthday gift (to take with me on the Alaska cruise), but unemployment put a quick end to that thought. And so after just four years, that tradition died. I still had my usual birthday dinner, but I never bothered buying myself a birthday gift that year. And while I did have a job in 2006, the unemployment had gone on longer than I'd hoped, so I didn't bother getting myself anything then either.
So by the time September rolled around this year, I didn't see any point to this dead and silly tradition anymore. It's not like it was stopping me from buying stuff, like a new laptop, going on vacation, or getting a digital SLR. There was nothing else I was craving to buy. Buying myself a gift was irrelevant.
But then I learned the hard way that AT&T wouldn't let me send or receive text messages on my cell phone without paying for a monthly text plan...
For years, from childhood on, my main birthday tradition was having a party with as many friends as possible. Nothing unique there, but as traditions go, that's a pretty good one to have. (My mom would usually bake a t-shirt shaped cake with black icing and a Pittsburgh Steelers logo on it for the party, but that's another story).
I continued this tradition every year until I entered college. I even managed to pull it off a couple of times during my relatively antisocial college years, though the "parties" consisted of only 2-3 other people. Oh, and let's just say that Blue Velvet is not a good movie for birthday party viewing.
It took a couple of years before I got the tradition restarted once I got to NI. But birthdays were always a good excuse for a happy hour, and mine was no exception.
Then, once I got to IBM, I found myself with a salary that actually met the market average for the first time. I was no longer making substantially less than a tech writer should. That, plus becoming a homeowner, led to the birth of a second birthday tradition: buying myself something major for a birthday gift. So one year, I bought myself a big-screen TV. The next, an entertainment center to go around that. The next year, new bedroom furniture. And finally, in 2004, I bought myself a point-and-shoot digital camera, which was by far the smallest and least expensive of the lot, but still well worth it.
Then, in 2005, I got laid off. I'd been considering getting an iPod photo for an early birthday gift (to take with me on the Alaska cruise), but unemployment put a quick end to that thought. And so after just four years, that tradition died. I still had my usual birthday dinner, but I never bothered buying myself a birthday gift that year. And while I did have a job in 2006, the unemployment had gone on longer than I'd hoped, so I didn't bother getting myself anything then either.
So by the time September rolled around this year, I didn't see any point to this dead and silly tradition anymore. It's not like it was stopping me from buying stuff, like a new laptop, going on vacation, or getting a digital SLR. There was nothing else I was craving to buy. Buying myself a gift was irrelevant.
But then I learned the hard way that AT&T wouldn't let me send or receive text messages on my cell phone without paying for a monthly text plan...
Labels: Life
posted by Dipu @ 10:51 PM
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