What would YOU want?

Firstly, on a writerly note: Dark One’s Mistress has clambered to the 20k mark. ^_^ On the other hand, I’ve a sneaky suspicion it won’t reach 50k in the first draft. Ah, there’s always the edit for bringing more words into the work.

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On the 22nd (two days ago for me now) my birthday snuck by. That means, officially, I’ve now been writing for fifteen years. To show for it, I’ve ten stories in various written stages. ^_^

The day passed with little note. There was no cake, no party, no prezzies (unless you count the book I bought for myself). In fact, it was your average, hectic food-shopping day. I barely got any well-wishes. Even my godmother forgot.

It was lovely and, relatively, quiet. At least it wasn’t a repeat of my 21st. That one was forgotten in the rush to the hospital after a car accident that wrecked my 4×4. Fortunately I was unscathed for I was also six months pregnant.

My inbox was a different story. It became inundated with automated messages wishing me a “happy birthday”. Most of them from forums I’ve long abandoned and deleted without a second glance.

See I’m a birthday grump. The “what do you want?” question bugs me. I don’t mind it around Christmas, but hearing it when it’s for my birthday annoys me. I’ve everything I require bar some of the more expensive/elusive books. Both wait while I read the books I own and, eventually, opportunity shuffles them my way.

I know I’m a terrible person to get gifts for, so I tell my family get “gift cards” or “a little money’ll do”. But they refuse. It’s cause they just know if they take that option, I’ll spend whatever they give me on my daughter instead. It’s not unfounded either. This year, for my birthday, I got my daughter two DVDs.

But is that a bad thing? Honestly?

Do you get hounded by the “what do you want?” question around your birthday? How do you answer?