Birthdays and stuff

Yesterday, I traveled a few hours to visit a friend for their birthday. Was good seeing almost the whole friend group in person again (our schedules don’t match much). I was driven there, but took the train back, giving me a reason to continue reading a novel a different friend lent me a while ago.

It’s called Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang. I’m only about 100 pages in out of 500+, but it’s decently interesting so far. I like the writing style (not too much purple prose, nor too simplistic), though I don’t imagine I’d really be able to offer a judgement on the actual quality of the narrative and execution, since my literary analysis skills are not particularly practiced (I mostly read for entertainment only). At worst, I’ll take about 16 hours total to finish reading it, but I could do it under 10 or even 6 if I feel like overheating my brain.

Next Saturday, I will probably be attending a birthday dinner. I’m not good with birthdays and dates in general so I haven’t prepared anything yet. I didn’t even prepare anything for the birthday from yesterday. At least my friends don’t mind much about gifts, and I don’t care about getting things in return. I’m thinking I’ll make something, not sure what. Mother suggested a felt plush as my sister bought a lot of materials recently, which could work if my friend’s dog doesn’t decide to rain destruction on it. I don’t necessarily have to give anything on the day if I can’t finish something in time, but I might prepare some money or a purchased gift anyway. Their mother is the type to be wary of anyone who doesn’t spend at least an equal amount of money on her that she did on them (iirc handmade didn’t really count to her, unless it was obviously expensive material or a lot of effort), so she didn’t really like me at the start. But after she found out about my poor health, she gave me a lot more slack and even approved my friend giving me some expensive stuff with no strings attached. Still, I’d feel a bit uncomfortable potentially showing up at their house with nothing when the parents might say something.

Honestly, if I’d given myself time and materials and practiced the skills I want, I would have done a lot for this friend (really all my good friends). It would be so nice if I could regularly gift handmade clothes and physical paintings and clay models and even woodwork projects, but in all those cases, I don’t have the materials, skills, time, or motivation. It’s something I need to work on, sigh. I just don’t like buying gifts much since I’m not confident in my shopping taste for other people. There’s definitely more cool things online that would certainly make great presents, but I’m too scared of scams for that — I don’t even buy stuff for myself online unless I get direct guidance from the more experienced shoppers in my life.