Happy birthday to me — continued
My shameless self-promotion of my birthday paid off.
As written (below) I sent out an e-mail announcing my impending birthday and asking my friends to give me a call while I was at work and leave a message on my home machine wishing me a happy birthday.
I must admit, I smiled several times during the day knowing that when I returned I would relish pushing play on my answering machine.
In fact, I kept them on there for a couple of days so I could enjoy them again.
My friends managed to collectively wow me.
A couple of people misread or disregarded my e-mail and phoned me at work, which was great as well.
Note to self: a good excuse for taking your birthday off of work is that you won’t get any work done anyway when everyone calls you.
All told, there were 13 answering machine messages at home and two phone calls at work.
Two people decided to personally call, leave an e-mail. A couple phoned or e-mailed and sent e-cards and several sent just e-cards.
And then, there were the folks who sent birthday cards via snail mail (some with checks).
I was also delighted to hear from a couple of friends who have moved far, far away and who I usually only correspond with during the holidays.
The temptation is to abuse this ritual and send out an e-mail asking for positive affirmation of my existence every time I’m in a blue mood, but that would be annoying and likely would not elicit continuing positive results.