No, thank you!

What'd I do this weekend? I finished my thank you notes! (YEAH, baby!) And that is truly almost all I did this weekend. It seems that I have transformed into some large blob of gestational mass. A pretty inactive blob at that.

So, I'll talk with you about thank you notes. First of all, as much as I hate writing them, I do think they are a nice tradition. How many other pieces of mail do you actually receive that have real, true handwriting on them? And a stamp? Real mail rocks in this modern age of IM and email. But thank you notes can go wrong.

For example, I think that thank you notes should be somewhat personalized. As in, they should not resemble a form letter. I've received many thank you notes that sound like this: Dear Pigs, Thank you so much for the _________. We look forward to using it for many years to come. We're glad you could be a part of our wedding day. Sincerely, Generic Friend. Not that there's anything wrong with this format. I mean, they are saying thank you after all. It just seems too easy.

I just feel the need to be sincere as a result of my Extreme Guilt Complex at receiving all these gifts in the first place, and I get it in my head that I need to show my worthiness of the present through the awesomeness that is my thank you note. It is unbelieveable how much people will shower upon a baby. So, in a thank you note, I feel the compulsive urge to say something about the gift, something about the person, and try to convey the deep gratitude (guilt) that I possess. It's a tricky little game, and certain circumstances can make it even more challenging.

For instance, group gifts throw me off. On one hand, I think group gift equals group thank you note, but this only applies if it's in a workplace where said thank you can be passed around easily. I feel this is okay, especially if the present is of the gift card variety. But then what do you do when it's a real gift? A real gift with multiple components? That's when I start overanalyzing. How do I thank each of them for the same gift in their own special way without writing the same thing? What if they compare thank you notes? People do that, you know. (Okay, I do that.) My husband's (4) aunts who all live on the same road in the same small town all gave us about the same amount of money as a gift. I nearly developed an ulcer over that set of thank yous. (I can assure you that they compare.)

Now you have read probably more than you ever cared to think about thank you notes. You can see what sitting around as an amorphous, gestating blob does to your mind. I can dwell upon simple things at great lengths and manage to somehow accomplish nothing at the same time. The highlight of today? A trip to the grocery store! And maybe? Maybe? If I'm not too wiped out from that and I get a good rest in, I may play Bunco tonight. Rock on, good readers.