This Year's Amazon Birthday Wishlist

With my birthday now less than one month away, I'm going through the annual ritual of cutting myself off from my Amazon wishlist.

This is more difficult than you'd imagine. I don't buy from Amazon constantly--I do support "brick & mortar" stores whenever possible, especially those in my city and, specifically, my neighborhood. However, some items are only available (or are most readily available) through Amazon, and many books and movies can be found at a (sometimes steep) discount through Amazon Marketplace.

But the lockdown is now in session. I won't buy anything on this list from now until the end of May. Somehow, I will survive.

If you can't afford to buy anything, believe me, I understand--I've been flat broke much of this year and will likely not buy myself anything this year.

Hugs and kisses blown from afar work just as well for me--even better, maybe.

This Year's Amazon Wishlist

My birthday is less than a month away, so it seems appropriate to mention my Amazon.com wishlist...although. come to think of it, with a lot of my friends unemployed/underemployed/flat broke, it's unlikely that anybody will be able to buy me anything off of it. So...yeah, there's that.

Friday is Bring Your 8th Wonder of the World to Work Day

This coming Monday, May 4, is my birthday. While I'm not feeling especially celebratory this year--one of those "how ther hell did I wind up here?" kind of deals--I'm not past buying something for myself.

This year, that "something" wound up being something out of the ordinary, and yet quite fitting for me.

One of my coworkers, who knows of my loves for both classic cinema and action figures, pointed me to a Japanese website that had the two figures pictured above available at a deep discount: King Kong (from the 1933 original, not from the more recent--and more inferior--remakes) and the Tyrannosaurus Rex that he beats the stuffing out of in one of the greatest action sequences ever filmed. And since my budget could handle such a relatively minor expenditure (I would get both figures for less than the price of one) and there were no toys on my Amazon wishlist, I went ahead and placed the order.

The T-Rex arrived early this week, but Kong (shipped separately for whatever reason) didn't show up until today. As soon as he did, though, they both went on display in their full black-and-white glory, much to the delight of my officemates.

They'll come home with me tonight when I toddle off for my three-day weekend and take their proper place atop my TV--from there, they'll greet one and all who dare come to La Casa del Terror (once I actually buy new furniture and clean the place, of course).

This Year's Amazon Wishlist

My birthday is now less than one month away.

For those who care, this means a couple of important things: The embargo on buying myself DVDs, CDs and/or books has officially gone into effect (not like I've got money to do such anyway, but still...); and I've updated my Amazon Wishlist.

I've done something different with the Wishlist this year, though. In the past, I've gotten comments about the size of my Wishlist along the lines of "It's so big? How can I possibly choose?" Understandable. My Wishlist has had as many as 90 items on it. While that leaves a lot more room for surprise and less room for anticipation on my part, it can (and did) lead to undue confusion and anxiety on the part of gift-givers.

This year, I've pared the list way down--under 30 items as of this writing. The list is now more focused, with more DVDs and books that I not only really, really want, but that my friends might be most likely to afford in these tight times.

Not that I'm asking everyone (or, really, anyone) who reads this page to buy me something. As Mrs. Lovett sang, "Times is hard, times is haaaaaaard!" Also? I'm not boiling over with enthusiasm about the annual ritual this year. My job is in jeopardy (due to the recession, not through my competence or lack thereof). I've lost friends both figuratively (as in being dumped out of their lives without ceremony or explanation) and literally (as in shuffling off the mortal coil). I think I may just take the day off from work, have a quiet lunch or dinner on my own, and leave the circumstance and pomp for another time.

Of course, if any of you are inclined to buy me a little sumthin'-sumthin, I'm not exactly going to turn it down or send it back. Just sayin'.