Holiday Extravaganza

Long time no anything! Did you miss me? You know you did.
Stupid real life trauma drama keeping me from virtual importance. Funny how writing kept me from writing... Ok, maybe not funny. But, it's the height of the capitalistic high holidays and those are just not funny.
You'd think that those of us without a holiday at this time of year would have a very mellow time of it. But nooo.... Either we work with stressed out people or in retail. I don't do the retail thing. Can't take dealing with people who think that shopping is anything but a necessary evil to get food and clothes and other basic supplies. As i have said before: all blonde jokes began as shopper jokes, you know - until big business lobbied and got the wording changed to support their interests. Seriously. Ask anyone working in retail. They'll tell you.
Me, i am sitting at the group home spending Christmas Eve with the mentally ill. "You aren't spending Christmas or Christmas Eve with your family? Poor thing." You don't know my family... Besides, if i am going to spend a holiday with the mentally ill, i would prefer to get paid for it. Which brings me to my other problem with this holiday season. I don't celebrate any of the myriad holidays that occur around this time of year, but my entire family does. So, i have to go out and buy crap for them for absolutely no reason whatsoever! The day has no significance to me at all. Gifts given on an insignificant day have even less purpose than those given on days with some sort of intent on the part of the giver. My intent is just to get it over with as painlessly as possible.
I am a big one for giving gifts to those i care about. Ask my boyfriend. He'll tell ya. Giving because i want to give or for reasons not associated with social obligation is a great thing. Receiving something given just because the other person cared and thought about you enough to get it for you is equally amazing. But, giving stuff because the calendar says you have to is just stupid and meaningless. Give me something on December 11th or August 4th or some other day that has nothing written on it by the Hallmark conspirators. Better yet, for the romantic sort of gifties, make me dinner, call me for no reason, show up at work at the end of my shift with a card and massage oils, or just give me a hug and a smile. For the non-romantic ones, send me a stupid email joke, invite me over for tea, call for no reason, ... Endless possibilities. But, giving stuff because some person decided to make money off a religious holiday? Give me a break. Or Valentine's Day. If i don't already know, don't bother. If i do, fine, bother all you want. You never know... But, not because the calendar told you to. If you don't do it other times of the year, don't do it then.
Don't do everything the advertisers' voices in your heads tell you and don't think that gifts buy you anything back. They just make you poor.
So, here i am at the group home. Why? I am giving the full time staff time with their families and the clients whose families have decided not to deal with them a holiday with someone who will treat them like human beings who are worth spending time with (not even the government thinks that - programs got slashed again... we haven't had raises in 3 years and these guys eat a lot of hotdogs already... *sigh*).
Time to stop typing and get back to it. My calendar is wide open this weekend and no one is telling me i have to do this. I am not obligated to do this at all, as a matter of fact. And that is why it is a gift.