… and yes, I know I should be grateful for the things that I get, and it’s the thought that counts, and all of those things like that. But I’m not grateful, and I’m not sure there was any thought put into it.
People always say that I am a difficult person to buy presents for. The main reasons are firstly that they don’t trust themselves to get me anything electronic based in case it isn’t the right thing (the exact reason that I don’t buy any people clothes). The other reason is frankly that if I want something, I get it myself, leaving other people nothing to get me. But I have the same problem with other people, and that’s why I put careful thought into getting something that they don’t know that they want, but represents the person, what they like, and what they are interested in at that moment.
It also leads to me getting a lot of voucher presents, which is fine in my book, because I can get the things I want. And so it was again this year, and the voucher things are not the problem.
You know when you feel everyone buys you things based on a single theme? My theme this year was “Back to the Future”. And not in the good way.
Firstly, one of the things that I got was a trinket box… you know, one of the things that you put rings and things like that in. Basically glory box stuff. Well the only ring that you would put in this thing was yours as you deliberately sat on it- except it would cause you more damage than it. Although I am a great many things, I am not a girly girl, so whoever saw a Plaster of Paris fairy on top a trinket box and thought of me wasn’t thinking straight. But you know what? The person that got me that didn’t have to get me anything, so chalk it down to a hideous gift that explains how gift stores stay in business.
No, it was a family member’s gift of a Cabbage Patch Kid that was insulting.
To put a long story short, I lost a Cabbage Patch Kid when I was 7, and the gift was a replacement.
Now, here are the problems with it:
- The aforementioned lost Cabbage Patch Kid got replaced the day after I lost it. In my eyes, the story was closed 20 years ago.
- They did not replace my doll per se, because if that was the case they would have chosen one that was, you know, the same gender and race as the first one. This doll looks like a black tramp.
- They got the same gift for a 3 year old (and by the way, the 3 year old tried to open it as her own… imagine having to tell her parents that it was not her doll but yours. Frankly, it was degrading.)
- I’m 29 years old.
Basically, they were lazy and put no thought into the gift. I’m not sure whether they still think I’m 7, whether they have listened to anything that I have said in the last decade, whether they give a stuff. And although it was ‘just’ a Christmas present, the doll to me represented something else… and I’m only getting over that a week later.
Now I have this whore of a doll I have to sell on Ebay.
They also gave me 2 of those fighting fish, which would be okay if it wasn’t a redo of what they gave me 3 years ago. Hint 1: That fish died because of my incompetence as a pet owner. Hint 2: When you give a pet as a present, give food as well, especially when there are public holidays involved. It wasn’t a surprise that one of the new fish was dead in it’s tank this morning.
And with that note, the festive season was over.
