I'm currently reading A Passage to India and just made it through the most subdued break-up scene in history. (They're British, you know.) Apparently, good breeding and such prevent one from making a spectacle after one has just seen one's heart trampled upon by . . . a nasty person. Enough of that. I want to post about gifts and holiday type things.
With all the civility permeating our language, it's hard to tell if someone really likes anything, and when your best efforts fail you, friends will tell you what happens to the gifts that don't make the cut. Some of them are "re-gifted." People blessed with extra closet space often maintain an "ugly gift closet" and only bring said gift out when the giver visits. Note to apartment dwellers: just avoid meeting in the home.
As an anxiety prone person, I have a special brand of angst for the holidays. Friends and family tell me that I always give them such wonderful gifts. They're probably making it up because when I'm confronted with the challenge of picking something out for anyone other than my father or husband, my first instinct is to freeze until the need passes. Then, I want to buy everything that comes even close. One of 'em's gotta be right!
Buying for adults is so complicated! Take electronic items, for example. I seriously considered getting my parents a blu ray player this year and decided not to because I didn't want to send their whole living room into upheaval on Christmas morning. I hope I made the right decision on that. Now that I've put this out there, I'll need to watch for incoming fall-out. It's just so much more than plug and play. You have to decide whether or not 3D support is something you need in your life right now. I don't know about everyone else, but when things start grabbing at me from the glowy box, it's usually a sign I've had too much.
Books and movies can be such loaded topics. I mean, what books are worth buying in physical book form these days? Well, I found some. I'll follow-up more later on silly stationary and Man films.
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