I admit it--I'm not the easiest person to buy gifts for.
It's not that my friends and family don't know my interests, likes, dislikes, etc. They know them well. I love watching and reading about movies. I love action figures and lunchboxes. I love Bettie Page.
So there are plenty of things I might actually like or want. The real question my friends and family must ask? "Does he have [insert potential gift here] already?"
This is not an unreasonable question. I probably have more DVDs than your neighborhood Blockbuster (no, really...just ask anybody who's ever been to my apartment) and enough books to populate a small, eclectic library. I'm very much a Taurus--I like to collect shiny objects around me in abundance--and more than once in the recent past, friends have bought birthday or Christmas presents for me, only to find that DVD or book already in my collection.
The solution to this problem? My Amazon wishlist.
I can't claim that I thought of this all by myself; several friends have had wishlists on Amazon for years. It's an interesting peek into the likes/dislikes of someone you know, or presume to know. What, for instance, does it say about me that my wishlist includes The Seven Samurai, Enchanted, Olivier's Hamlet, Attack of 50 Ft. Woman, Do the Right Thing, several episodes of the original Doctor Who series (as well as seasons two and three of the current series) and a book about Mego action figures? I don't know. That's for any individual reader of the list to decide.
Even though such a list would seem to limit the choices my friends can make and would seem to limit the amount of surprise I can have--even if the wishlist has, as of this writing, 80 items on it--it gives them plenty of options. Still, I must admit feeling self-conscious about dropping that link in an email and sending it to those most likely to buy me something, or about even mentioning its existence here, much less linking to it.
The wishlist--and the direction of my friends to it--is preferable, though, to the alternative: dear friend gives shiny gifty, hoping to delight; dear friend finds out that I already have whatever they took the time and consideration to give me; dear friend winds up keeping gift or searching for receipt.
It's happened before. I don't want it to happen again.
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I am one of your friends who was VERY happy to see that list last week. With 80 items, you have 80 possibilities dancing around in your head, 80 guesses. That's a lot. And having so many choices gives your buds the op to surprise you still because, being the Taurus you are, you probably have some ideas of what we might choose. Surprise! when one of us chooses somthing you didn't expect. That happened to me on my b-day (God, PLEASE deliver me from channeling Beyonce') when Dee gave me the Spike ("Buffy" YAY!) action figure. I totally expected that nobody would buy it.
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