Friday, February 10, 2012

The Rules For the Opening of Crappy Day Presents

It has come to my attention, by comments I have read here and there, that I was not clear enough in my original CDP post about the appropriate circumstances under which one should open a Crappy Day Present.

I will try to clarify:
  • The most important rule, when it comes to opening a CDP, is: you do not have to meet various, mysterious, impossible-to-meet criteria of worthiness or deserving, nor do you have to register the level of Crappiness of your day at a certain point on the Global Crappiness scale, before you can open a Crappy Day Present.
    • I can honestly tell you that, if you are in possession of a CDP, you ARE worthy AND deserving as evidenced by the fact that somebody cares about you enough to make sure you have that CDP in your possession.
    • If YOU are feeling Crappy (wanting to cry and/or wanting to dive into a vat of expensive ice cream/chocolate/alcohol is often a clue), it DOES NOT MATTER if a DIFFERENT person wouldn't feel Crappy under the same circumstances; we are talking about YOU! The entire purpose behind the Crappy Day Present is to make YOU feel loved and supported when you could use some extra love and support.
      • Note: I can understand the non-opening of a Crappy Day Present in the interest of not running out, since I have that worry myself from time to time am an understanding sort of person, but, unless you are down to 1 or 2, YOU ARE NOT CLOSE TO RUNNING OUT, but, even though life may look a little bleaker when you run out of Crappy Day Insurance so, CDPs were meant to be opened.
  • You do not need to justify your decision to open a CDP, at ANY time, no matter the circumstances. It doesn't matter if you opened one yesterday, or if you opened one 5 minutes ago...if it will cheer you up to open a CDP, OPEN A CDP!
  • Unless the names of any of the members of your household are on the present, you are not by any stretch of the imagination expected to share, and, I dare say, obligatory sharing of CDPs is HIGHLY DISCOURAGED.
  • It really is this simple: someone loves and/or cares about you and wants to help support you and/or cheer you up when you are having a rough day, so allow yourself to be loved and supported by opening a CDP she has given you, if you think it will help.
I think that should do. Let me know if I've left anything out =).
*******

As I was working on this post last night, God showed His sense of humor in my life, YET AGAIN, by giving me a new, pertinent, real-life example of an appropriate time to open a Crappy Day Present:
When you are chewing gum (the good-for-your-teeth kind, no less), and you find yourself wondering why your gum is a bit crunchier than usual, and you then realize that either your tooth has broken or one of your fillings has just come out, and the next day is Friday, and you know that your dentist doesn't go to the office one day per week, and you can't remember if Friday is that day, and you wonder if the dentist will be able to work on your tooth anyway since your cold has turned into a sinus infection, AND you realize that your babysitter is going to be busy tomorrow morning even if you DO manage to procure an appointment, and you are terrified a little concerned about the amounts of pain discomfort and money that are going to be involved in fixing your tooth, this is a PRIME example of an appropriate time to open a CDP.

Crappy-Day-Present-Receiving Etiquette

9 comments:

Andrea said...

Excellent explanation! My husband doesn't get the concept of CDPs and is all "was your day THAT bad?" So I say, "no, but having a little gift to open just makes things better."

Now that I am down to two left, I am definitely rationing a little more.

PinkieBling said...

When is the next CDP registration? I want in!

Swistle said...

I love the rules!

Doing My Best said...

PinkieBling--Well, the mailing deadline for the last round is Feb. 20th, so I could open registration for the next round at the beginning of March and see if there are enough people interested to do it again =)!

Josefina said...

I keep reading the striked-out area and CRINGING. AND SHUDDERING. BLARG. I'm so sorry about your tooth. I hope it's fixed soon.

I feel a little bit like all the rules contain an implied JOSEFINA! at the beginning or end of them :) I do keep thinking about that one particular day that took TWO MAJOR CDPs to get through and wondering if there will be another like it and, yes, rationing.

twisterfish said...

Great list of rules! I will print them and refer to them often.

By the way, I just today finished putting together the CDP for this current exchange... it should be mailed out tomorrow or Monday!

Doing My Best said...

Josephina--I PROMISE I did not have any certain person in mind when I wrote this!! I've seen quite a few comments about the opening of CDPs and my Crappy Day Present 6th Sense told me that people were still missing the basic message of "OPEN THIS PRESENT BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, AND I'M SORRY YOU'RE HAVING A CRAPPY DAY!" =)!

twisterfish--Happy news! Thanks for letting me know =)!

Kenner said...

Oh MAN, I want to laugh at your example of a good time to open a CDP, but then I also want to tell you, "Oh man, that sucks, I am SO SORRY!" :) I just love that you put this all together, and I swear that someday I'll start getting in on all the good karma (the CDP you sent me that time really saved the day!) But man, mailing things is my KRYPTONITE! (Followed closely by wrapping things . . . ) Which makes a mailing items thing difficult to participate in . . . anybody want to just come to my house to pick up some unwrapped gifts? ;)

Doing My Best said...

Carolyn: I'm quite sure that my rate of sending CDPs declined SEVERELY every time I had a baby in the house =).

The USPS does make it easier to send packages now: you can order (free) the flat rate boxes from their website to be delivered right to your house, and you can print the postage out on your own printer and request carrier pick-up, so you don't even have to leave the house to mail it =)!