Okay, maybe the title is a bit dramatic… but it is kinda how I feel.
First, though, I wanna thank all the encouraging words people have given me. It really does help know that I’ve got some great readers that support me in these less than stellar times.
(I’m thinking of trademarking that phrase: The Less Than Stellar Times.)
Hopefully, you won’t be too disappointed with just checking in to read my ramblings for the next couple of weeks.
Today, I want to talk about bad gifts. I’m pretty notorious around my house for giving bad gifts. I try not to, but somehow I wind up, in desperation, buying something that really makes no sense for folks, and then I get to hear about it for years afterward.
There was the Idiot’s Rubik’s Cube, with all silver tiles. Or the time I bought my sister a 14 inch ceramic smiling mushroom that was an oil lamp. Or the time I bought my mother the Showcase Presents Batman (400+ pages of black and white comic goodness… for a woman in her 60’s that doesn’t read comics).
Yeah.
Of course, these are extremes. I don’t blow it all the time. And, I like to think of those times that I knock it out of the park as making up for the dumb gifts I invariably give. The mushroom may have been bad, but another time I commissioned a college varsity jacket to be made for my sister, since her college didn’t have one. I designed it myself, went to a local shop, confirmed they could do what I asked, and three weeks later my sister had a jacket that she still gets asked where to get one from her fellow alumi.
People have suggested, hearing my problems with gift giving, that I just buy gift cards.
I won’t do that.
Why? Because gift cards are bad gifts.
I’ve always thought that money was a pretty “eh” gift. Nothing says, “I couldn’t think of anything to get you” like cash. But, still, cash is better than a gift card.
Why? Because a gift card says, “I couldn’t think of anything to get you, but I wanted to shackle you down to this one store and force you to buy something there.”
I taught art to grade schoolers for a year. During that year, I recieved three gift cards for Christmas. Was I appreciative? Sure. I wasn’t expecting anything, and it was a nice surprise. The problem is that I taught at a school that was 30 minutes away from where I live… and the gift cards were all to local businesses. In order to use them, I had to drive 30 minutes or stay in the city after working with grade schoolers all day and go shopping. Neither were ideal options.
So, here’s what I’m saying – if you can’t figure out what to give someone, just hand over the cash. Don’t saddle them with a gift card and deny them the choice of where to buy their own gift.
That’s enough rambling for today. I’ll see you all (hopefully) Friday!
