My brother got me some blank cds that don’t even work on my computer. What makes it worse is he has many blank cds that i have created for him so he knows exactly what I do use!
My mom continually gets me lame presents. I just got a box for Easter with a shot glass in it. I’ve gotten about 8-10 shotglasses from her in the past year. I don’t know why. There’s the usual socks and underwear.
I have gotten some very bizarre and inexplicable presents from the ex-bf and his family. Which is incredibly odd, because I am probably one of the easiest to buy-for people I know. I wear solid black most of the time, and last Christmas I got two pairs of red socks with little snowmen and penguins knitted into them, and a bunch of candy I couldn’t eat. Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate that they took the time to send something at all, but there is still a bit of that WTF? factor involved. For Christmas one year, the ex-bf gave me a copy of 1984, along with some notes written in it and a seperate packed of informational papers that he researched/printed and wrote on, and apparently had lent the book out to his friends to read before giving it to me. Now, I liked the book, and appreciated the work that went into it, but it isn’t terribly romantic – to say the least. His whole family was a bit odd about Gifts, though. (I never actually saw someone give socks as a gift prior to spending the holidays with them.) He liked to give me books a lot, and always put a lot of thought into finding something I might like, but I don’t really have time to read much so they’ve just kind of collected dust. I think the nicest thing he ever did for me, gift-wise, was bring me a rose bud on one of the few occasions that he went to meet me at the airport. I was very happy with him while we were together, but he was kind of lacking in the gifts & romance departments.
(When we went to very romantic Old Québec City by train, I had to throw a fit and pay myself so that we could get a private room w/out his friends who had also come on the trip, instead of staying in a hostel with a bunch of strangers and communal washrooms.) I admit that I always was a bit disappointed, because I very much went out of my way to get him cool and interesting presents that I thought he would like.
I think the most hurtful gift I ever got was last Christmas – I had wanted a new corset ordered from this boutique in Australia, and he gave me the money to order it myself because he didn’t know which one or what size I wanted, etc. All of that was well and good, and in reality he should have just left it at that and let me get my own gift. But he told me he had gotten me something Chinese and made of silk, to wear, and tried making me guess what it was, so I was asking if it was a kimono or dress (because I had wanted one, sorta, for awhile) and of course he wouldn’t tell me. I had broken up with him about a week or so prior to visiting, but I went anyway because he wanted to see me and still be friends, and took him a very nice gift of some candy, and I don’t remember what else – all packaged up very nice. Well, the thing he had gotten me all hyped up over turned out to be a very ugly silk scarf that he had found in the bottom of the closet in the house he stayed in, and had belonged to the previous resident there before him and I guess forgotten when he moved out. It was nothing like I would have any interest in owning, much less wearing. I couldn’t really see it as anything but a very hurtful slap in the face, and he shouldn’t have given me anything at all. I still don’t know or understand what he was thinking when he did that.
He was a very sweet guy and it was a great relationship while it lasted, but he was rather lacking in the ‘how to properly treat a girlfriend’ department. (He used to say "I got a present for you! and then send me PDF files of his class assignments. Which are interesting, but not something to get your SO excited over.)
Sigh.
An ex-boyfriend and I still send each other presents. This last Christmas he sent me ice cream from a cool shop that makes up exotic flavors (green curry/coconut, rose/pepper). I looove trying new food stuff, so the ice cream was a brilliant gift. What did I give him in return? A shirt, dammit. A plain black shirt, with plain black buttons, not linen, not silk of any kind, no texture, just plain black cotton, thank you very much. Sigh it’s all he ever wants, so I threw in a couple of rolls of an interesting type of film, to feed the photographer in him, just for spite. He fussed at me for it, too.
I think I’m pretty good at gift giving when I get a little help from the recipient. My mom adores the Smothers brothers but only had one tape of them for years since that’s all that’s available in stores. Since Mommy likes them and whatever Mommy likes Mommy’s gonna get, I haunted Ebay till I had every single one of their records. I then had them made into cd’s and included tickets to their show in Vegas. Yes, I went a bit overboard but it was the first time in ages she gave me any sort of clue to what she liked without forbidding me to buy it in the same breath.