Among the birthday wishes I received yesterday were emails from the following:

• Bloodworks Northwest
• Providence Swedish
• Regal Crown Club
• URaiseMN

Regal offered a free small popcorn (within 30 days of receipt), Providence asked me to celebrate all that I've accomplished this year (I guess in the last three weeks), while Bloodworks tied giving blood to helping someone reach another birthday (that one made sense).

Oh, I also got animated balloons from Google.

Is all of this an intrusion? A bit. It just feels wrong. The pretense of it. The pretense that there's people there, a face behind the messages. I imagine it'll only get worse.