I get really excited about buying gifts for people – the same sort of excitement and happiness I receive when making and sending care-packages to people I love.

At minimum, I’ll spend a complete month (or more) trying to figure out what to buy someone, making certain that it not only is a reflection of their taste, but also my love for them and the strength of our relationship.

I drive all over the city, haunt the internet, order from eBay, elbow old ladies to get the last one, hide at the back of antique shops, rummage through the attics of strangers…and then get things engraved. I have very rarely only given one item as a gift, but rather several items that complete a puzzle and a message, each piece having had hours of thought and care placed into it.

Among my most prized gift gives was a photo album Dianna and I made for Natasha while we were in Scotland. She had desperately wanted to join us, but simply could not and so we created a sign that read: We love you and can’t wait to see you in Scotland, Tash! Random (and varied) Scots folk carried the sign and we photographed them – we had pictures of the elderly, infants, sheep, priests, actors, girls, queens, boys, families and statues holding the sign. When I gave her the photo album and the sign, she cried.

Then I cried.

Then one of our a**hole friends took a photo that Tash later added to the photo album itself.

For these same sentiments, I am quite nearly jumping out of my skin because of a particular gift I have found for one of my dearest and most cherished friends. I can’t even hint at it because they’ll know what it is as soon as I post anything.

Enough to say THAT it is an antique that I stumbled upon and that is the perfect reflection of who they are. It is for Janey, who has just purchased a new home and I fly out tomorrow to visit and along with a birthday gift that I still haven’t purchased, I had to buy a house warming gift – a part of the house warming gift is this antique treasure which I’ve just found, the other part consisting of a slew of items I’ve been collecting for the past month and setting aside for the occasion.

I’m totally psyched, and I promise to post photos as soon as I can.

Aside: Best gift received, for me, was the graduation ring that Baba gave me when we decided to restart our relationship.

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