Gifts, movies and markets

I have a smart neighbor whom I sometimes ask for advice. We sat down in the lobby and again I needed her opinion:

"My best friend has her birthday on the first day of Easter and I have to get her a present! I just don't know what!"

"Perfume! If you know her well and you probably do, you should know the scent she likes; cologne will make her happy!"

"No, cologne! Any kind of cologne, makes her sneeze!"

"Well, next choice would be chocolates!"

"Are you kidding? This woman is on a diet since I met her at the age of eight! Whenever I get her chocolates, she informs me promptly that she has passed them on to her cousin!"

Birthday wishes

A few years ago I decided that from then on I am going to ignore my birthdays! Who needs all those changes in figures every year? You hardly get used to two digits when suddenly one or two new ones come up! It's really disconcerting! Trouble is that children, family and friends won't let you forget! They exclaim enthusiastically: "It's your birthday today, how wonderful!" Big deal! What's so wonderful about it? 

Truth is that if they would forget, I would sit there in a corner completely miserable and say to myself: "So that's it, nobody remembers, no one loves me anymore!" But as it is now, everybody seems to celebrate that I am getting older! I get one party here at the Towers together with all those who were so lucky to be born in February, I get another party together with Hanni another fish, I get invited for dinners, lunches with complete disregard that this may cost me an additional 30 minutes on the treadmill, I get a whole flower field from my son and daughter-in-law in Germany, and my daughter sends me something from San Diego because of course I have nothing to wear!