Happy Birthday, Anniversary, Whatever.....

The day after our 8th wedding anniversary, a card shows up in our mailbox. It is addressed to CityCrab only and had familiar writing. It was from Mama Ruth. She is usually good about remembering occasions. By this I mean, she never calls and you may get a card way before or way after the actual date. But there is always a check. Can't fault a woman for that. So, I open the card. (CityCrab and I have a reciprocal mail policy.) It screams Happy Birthday on the front. I open it up to see it is, in fact, a birthday card addressed to CityCrab with a $36 check. (For those of you wondering about the $36, it is double chai. It's a Jewish thing where the letter chai, which means life equates to the number 18 so it's "good luck" to give 18 or multiples of it. More kabbalah crap.) I flip the card over to read the masthead and, true to form, it is a card created by the Alzheimer's Association.

Side bar: Mama Ruth has never in her life bought a card. She is very generous and gives to lots of organizations who in turn send her cards for her generosity. So, you can expect cards from Hadassah, Cancer and Heart societies, Women's League Conservative Judaism (they actually have very nice cards) and Alzheimer's foundation. It's a personality quirk.

I put the card in the mail pile and go about my day. Around 4:30, I hear the phone ring back to back to back. That's the warning call. I don't know who it is but I know something is up. Caller ID reveals it is Mama Ruth sending out her signal. I call her back to find out she had CityCrab's birthday mistakenly written on her calendar (the free one from our local community school), on our anniversary date. I am relieved to find out that all the money she has given to the Alzheimer's association won't need to be used on her. She apologizes. Then she says, "Cash that check and I'll send you the balance." Why? Because nothing says Happy Anniversary like "I'll send you the balance."