It’s Monday morning. You come back to your desk to find a manila envelope with office birthday cards inside. It’s for Bob in Accounting. You really don’t know Bob in Accounting. You stare vacantly down at the spots left on the card and your mind blanks. This is the third card to sign this month and you are running out of things to say. How can you keep yourself entertained as well as leave co-workers with a chuckle? Instead of the same monotonous scribbling, I came up with a few wittier comments to jot down that may get a little more attention. As an alternative to Happy Birthday Bob, give one of these a try…
For general birthday cards write “I’m sorry for your loss” or “my thoughts and prayers are with you at this time”. I have yet to build up the guts to write happy birthday in a sympathy card. How about “See a penny, pick it up, all day long, you’ll have a penny”. Or my favorite, simply cross out someone’s name who has already written something and put yours underneath. They can still read the message and see who it’s from but it saves time and may be interpreted as humorous. For someone who is retiring write “Quitter”! For just about any occasion you could jot down “Have a great summer”. Maybe randomly sign “It was a pleasure working with you on that weird pointless project”. The creative options are endless. This time leave Bob with a giggle or a puzzled look rather than another boring Happy Birthday.
Love this idea! I have to say that in a pinch, I have purcahsed a card at the local 7-eleven and crossed out some words to make it appropriate for my occasion if I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I think it chessy but the person I gave it too found it funny. I will have to steal and use some of these.
While I’m not too sure if I would follow in your exact footsteps, it is an interesting idea to switch the “normal” greeting into something a little more comical. I might just have to try putting a “Merry Christmas” on the inside of someones summer birthday card… maybe. Ok, I have to admit… the idea is getting more and more comfortable in my head, and I’m kind of laughing to myself right now thinking about it.
In my friends wedding card I wrote “may this be the unhappiest day of your life”. She had to admit that when she first read it she was so upset – she didn’t get it. But after realizing that if your wedding day could be considered the unhappiest day of your life – a day when you are actually very happy – that would mean that all of your other days will be as good or even better. I don’t know why i felt the need to explain myself – but just in case you don’t get the meaning…
I think its good that you said the meaning because I did not intitially get it. I hope it was her unhappiest day!