Thankless

I am almost physically incapable of writing thank-you notes. Perhaps it was the early childhood trauma incurred during the annual grimly enforced writing-of-the-thank-you-notes-to-all-of-Grandma's-brothers-and-sisters-for-their-$2-gifts. ("Dear Aunt Betty, Thank you for the $2. I am going to use it to buy a David Cassidy poster. Love, TC." I know. Shut up. "Dear Uncle Hymie," and yes that was his real name. Shut up again. "Thank you for the $2. I am going to use it to buy a new barrette. Love, TC.") Or maybe it was the double trauma of the fact that no sooner were those notes sealed and mailed than it was my birthday, and another round of $2 notes was due. (Grandma was one of six kids. This was no easy task, coming up with something that $2 would buy that they would be happy about having 'purchased' for me.)

Whatever the case, it's no excuse. I'm an adult now. I've had plenty of time to get over it already. And yet, while Baroy polished off his thank-you notes within a couple of weeks of our wedding, I never made it past the early Ts. It's been almost nine years now, and Mr. and Mrs. Walden have yet to be properly thanked for completing our dish set. Thanks, you guys!

Baby showers. No thank yous. Baby gifts. No thank yous. And now, birthday/Chanukah/I-saw-this-and-thought-N/Em-would-love-it gifts. And no thank yous. That's the saddest part--that I'm passing this awful non-habit habit on to my children.

Which is all by way of saying, I love it when you guys and gals leave me comments. The fact that I don't often reply to them? It's simply an indication of my poor upbringing and thank-you-note rebellion. I'm just an uncouth lout who doesn't deserve the time and effort you put into responding to me and my ramblings. But I'm not ungrateful. And I do want you to know that not only do I read every one of them, I sometimes have Baroy read them, too, when it's relevant, despite the fact that he doesn't/is forbidden to read my blog.

So know that your thoughts are not only appreciated, but treasured. Just not responded to. And if it makes you feel any betther, I herewith give you my promise: as soon as I've covered all the other issues in therapy, I'm definitely devoting a session to why I'm incapable of exerting myself to observe common courtesies. And at the rate things are going, I'm betting that will by 2022...at the very latest.