An email from Dad...
"How about if I take $50.00 out of your checking account to make a payment. So please reply to this e-mail telling us how much over $50.00 you want us to take out of your account to make a payment."
Great idea, Dad! Take what you need! You need $50? Oh, over $50. Gotcha. Well, no problem. I'm rolling in the dough. Chump change. And if that's not enough then I can always sell a kidney or something. But what do you need the $50+ for? A graduation gift for me, you say? Well, how sweet! It's the gift that keeps on giving! Take a few extra bucks out for some confetti.

This all reminds me of a great family tradition... I used to think that we didn't have any... but I was wrong...
It started when I was thirteen. At least I think it did... before then I wasn't exactly checking my account balances... anyway... this year for Christmas I wanted a stereo. We always get one nice gift for Christmas ($100+) and then a few smaller items (like socks). So my mom took me out to pick out my stereo (well, it wasn't exactly that simple... but you get the point). We go to some electronics store and I pick out one of the cheaper stereos (I knew my place... but I also made sure it had a karaoke function... or else there was no point in getting it at all! obviously!). So blah blah blah... Christmas morning comes and I open up my stereo. I'm happy and giddy... my sister is FURIOUS! (Another great family tradition... Judy's Christmas anger) She screams at my mom about how unfair it is that I should get such a nice gift since I'm such a horrible person... blah blah blah (insert demeaning remarks aimed at 13-yr-old Emily here). Mom replies back... (is she going to stand up for me?... no.) "Judy, now think about it. Would I buy Emily a gift like that? No. She's paying for half of it." Judy, now pleased, opens up her gifts. She's joking, right? She just said that to make Judy chill? No. She really did make me pay for the other half of the stereo. And so the tradition started of Emily paying for her own gifts. Birthdays, Christmas, graduation, etc. I usually do get gifts, but I pay for it. And if I don't pay for it in cash then I pay for it in pride. Any gift that is given to me from my parents (sometimes even if I do pay for it) comes with a side dish of guilt. My parents bought me a bike (pink) when I was sixteen. I had wanted a bike since I was ten but they decided to get if for me after I could drive. And to this day my mom guilts me about how I should be so grateful that I have parents that buy me such nice gifts even though I'm a horrible daughter.

I'm not a fan of this tradition... and so today I'll break it... I'll email Dad back and tell him to forget it. No more gifts. No more birthdays, or Christmas, or graduation. If I'm going to pay for the gift then I'm going to pick it out myself and not have to worry about the following guilt trip. No, no. No more.