I wasn’t really plan­ning on writ­ing any­thing today, but I sud­denly have an urge to express myself.

Dina gave me a bot­tle of Godet, and a Russian novel for my birth­day. She was the only per­son not related to me to buy me some­thing. It made me happy. Pita asked me why I’ve changed in my opin­ion of birth­days. I explained to him that it hasn’t; I just hate it when peo­ple feel forced to buy me some­thing, which is exactly what hap­pens when you live in res­i­dence. I’m at a com­fort­able point now where no one feels forced to get me some­thing, they can just do it if they please. I don’t really rec­og­nize the birth­day tra­di­tion any­way. I’ve always believed that one should give a gift when one wants, not at a set time every year.