Gifts and whatnot

[impy]

I loathe it when someone's birthday is coming up and I know full well they're expecting a present [thus any and all f-list people with impending birthdays should know it's not about them as the only people who fully expect gifts live near me, k? the rest of you just have the grace not to complain when you get one, three months late] and they don't give me any friggin' ideas. I also hate giving a gift that isn't loved or at least liked. It's worse than getting a gift you don't like because you actually spent money on something for someone and they're possibly trying to fake their way through the, "no, you really shouldn't have" portion of the exchange.

So hints are appreciated. Hell, sometimes I'll take flat out requests/demands.

Of course, I have an inkling of an idea for something to get the birthday girl. She's always going on about how stressed she is, so I'm thinking of giving her a bunch of useless fluffy girl stuff. Thing is, much of it's going to be scented, and I don't know which scent she adores these days. I'd really like to avoid a repeat of the year she gave me candles [yay!] that were peach scented [death!] and I didn't have the hear to hit her upside the head with the bag. If I had the money [and any idea which place around here did not suck], I'd just send her on her merry way with a spa day. But I don't.


So what do you get for the girl who used to be the easiest person to shop for? Used to be all you had to do was find something that hinted at being dark and spooky, overly emotional, sadness personified, or so terribly bitchily cute and you were set. Then she found her boytoy and country and it's like... Sort of like watching old shows you used to love as a child, but now you're an adult and you wondered if you were on crack.

&nsbp; Things that would have normally been perfect a few years ago? Now are simply met with a blank smile and you know full well they've been shoved in a closet somewhere, or regifted to someone who doesn't like them anymore than she did.

  Has she simply matured and I remain the same and refuse to acknolwedge said "progress"? Or has she managed to do something she's done so well in the past and submerge herself so fully in someone else's likes and dislikes that she's lost her own sense of what is unbelievably nifty?

Then there's another slew of birthdays and gifts to send in a belated flurry, and the bridal shower will require a gift, then immediately following is another birthday. Still, I love buying stuff for other people.

And Welcome to the Black Parade is on the radio. :D

Comments

[agent-alpo.livejournal.com]

I'm finding I've been having the same problem with Christmas gifts for my friends from high school and college. The things they used to love, they either don't love anymore or they've been given so many of said things they loved that they're burnt out on it. Now I don't talk to them enough to know what they love. I have ideas but sometimes I wonder if they're good. Like for Rosie's birthday I thought, "Hey Rosie likes wine. I'll get her a bottle." Yeah, everybody else had the exact same idea. I got to her house and there were literally at least 8 other bottles of wine already there that were gifts from other people. She was appreciative. She does really like wine, but how many birthdays and Christmases can she go before she gets burnt out on the 20 bottles of wine everybody gives her?

So anyway...I feel your pain.

[mystalkershrine.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, I'm not expecting any form of a gift from you other than a birhday greeting ;)