Is It the Thought that Counts If No Thought was Had?

As I mentioned in a previous post, my brother and sister-in-law suck at birthdays. My daughter's birthday was last Friday and my birthday is this coming Saturday. I sent my brother and sister-in-law an evite for my daughter's birthday party, hoping to make them remember that, "Oh, she has a birthday . . . perhaps we should send her something . . . like a card . . . or a present?" Not that I think my kid needs more stuff, she has cleaned up pretty well for her birthday thus far. It is the principle of the whole thing. When you only have one aunt and uncle, it would be nice if they remembered your birthday.

Yesterday, I came home and saw that there were two cards in the mail from my brother. The first one was addressed to me and I figured, hey . . . I bet that's my birthday card!! And it's early too!

Not so much. The front of the card had a saxophone on it, which is weird because I played the violin and we really don't have any connections to saxophones that I can think of. I opened it and realized it was a thank you card for my nephew's birthday present. That still doesn't explain the saxophone, but whatever. My brother's handwriting is atrocious, but I could make out ". . . loved . . . airplane . . . remember . . . you . . ." Well, that's nice, I thought.

Then I turned to the next card, which also had my brother's return address on it. Then I read the mailing address. It was in my brother's handwriting, but it was addressed to my sister-in-law. Sure, the address was mine, but the name was hers. Interesting, I thought. Then I figured that it must be my daughter's birthday card and my brother was distracted and knew he was supposed to send the card to someone at my address but not me and just wrote his wife's name.

As I was opening the card, my daughter says, "Is it for me? Is it for me? For my birthday?" Before I read the card, I told her it was for her birthday.

Not so much. It was a birthday card for me that had a small dog playing a metallic red electric guitar. On the inside it said, "No matter how old you get, you still rock!" I was glad they remembered my birthday, but a little sad they forgot hers, so I gave her the card and told her it was her birthday card. Thank god she can't read yet.