Thursday December 19, 2002

Shopping exhaustion

I am absolutely exhausted from shopping. Finding good gifts is hard, damn hard. I hate buying crap. I hate giving crap. I hate getting crap too. I don't want the gifts I give to be something my family and friends feel burdened to keep around, gathering dust. Nobody likes collecting junk like that, so I'm always trying to find something good, something meaningful, something that won't take up space and gather dust. So far, I've only found one gift that even remotely fits that criteria, and it's for my grandmother. I found a photo of her and my grandfather, standing with my mom, my two aunts, and my two uncles (the whole family). The photo was taken about 35 years ago, when they were all still living in Croatia. It's a beautiful black and white photo. I took it to Kodak Picture Maker and got it enlarged to an 8x10 (can I just say how much I love Kodak Picture Maker?). I matted and framed it (in a nice 11x14 oak frame). It's something meaningful, it's not crap, and it doesn't take up much space ('cept on a wall maybe). This is the kinda thing I wish I could find for everyone, but I can't. I've been sucked into looking through sales racks at the mall for everyone's gifts. I want to buy gifts, not stuff. Maybe next time I'll get it right.