I have heard of people who plan birthday gifts for months; and sometimes even years. I’ve heard they’re so good at giving presents that the people who get their presents are tremendously lucky to have them as friends, family or lovers. I’ve heard they’re creative, funny, charming, and mostly good in bed. I’ve heard they’re keepers; a rare breed of human beings that everyone should wish to be. And here I am, wishing to be a little bit more like them.
But I ain’t no present-giver. I’m a laughable joke at it at most. You know that aunt who always gives you an over-sized and unfashionable sweater for your birthday? Beware nephews and nieces because I’m headed that way. As sad as this may sound, this is nothing but the truth.
My best friend’s birthday (1/27) and my wife’s (1/30) are approaching and I have yet to come up with something to give them. You may say that I’ve been spending too much time blogging to remember what is like to be creative- but I promise you I’ve been giving this a lot of thought.
But really, if you don’t believe me that I’m awfully bad at this, this is what I have in mind so far:
For my friend:
- A book
- Something that looks like a book
- Maybe a different book
- A week’s supply of Clif Bars
For my wife:
- Shoes
- A picture of me
- A love letter
- A text message
I hope you enjoy my sucky gift!
In short, anyone who is expecting a gift from me might end up being miserable for life- because on their most special day, I couldn’t come up with something special to give them. So this is why I need your help. Now, I don’t want you to be creative for me, that would just be straight up wrong, but I do want you to steer me in the right direction.
I’ll take any idea, comment, suggestion, criticism, joke, tweet, Facebook status update or anything else that you’re willing to give me so I can at least attempt to make these two ladies happy in their most special day.
mrsthatone
Mrs. This One
Mrs. and Mrs. 
January 17th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
A year or two ago I gave my life-long best friend a poem/story of our friendship, fondest memories, and inside jokes. Something like that would be nice (and personal) and you could even add pictures.
I’ve given a friend a record signed by her favorite artist, which she loves and has hanging on her wall.
Depending on the person, I’ve also gifted donations, depending on what the person is interested in – a current favorite is kiva.org microlending where you can loan money to an entrepreneur in a 3rd-world contry and correspond with the person (they have a 99% return rate).
One-on-one activities are fun and memorable – concerts, skydiving, a day at the zoo, a day at the spa, an art class together – whatever might strike thier fancy.
I hope this gave you a bit of a launching pad to work with. Good luck! Finding the perfect gift is always tricky.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:08 pm
I’m a huge fan of making things as personal and mushy as possible for my friends and boyfriends. For my best friend’s birthday this year, I got her a pink crystal bracelet that was in support of breast cancer (her grandmother had just passed away weeks before) and back in high school, I made my boyfriend this huge scrapbook of tons of pictures of us from when we first met 2 years before up until that day and on the last page wrote, “to be continued..”
I think it all depends on the person– some people want practical things which they need, and some people more enjoy the simpler things– I’m the latter.. unless of course shoes are an option!
Good luck!
January 18th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Thank you guys! This certainly helped a lot. I think I now have a better idea of what to go with.
I think a problem I had into writing this post was that I’ve been pretty broke in the past couple of birthday dates, and even though I haven’t gotten richer overnight (I am still a college student), now I have some spending money in hand.
Creative and remarkable is something I’m going with. Wish me luck!